on my basement cellar shelves i keep a buncha cans: soups, water chestnuts.. tomato paste some firewood & old glass. i go there in the evenings with a drink, heft the big axe/chop wood, kindlings. a friend even slept down there one time my house was full up of sleepers (drunks) he said the sand was cold/but comforting. i told him: *"that's why i go down barefoot. that dusty sand on my feet/takes me someplace else."
the sand keeps all the food nice 'n cold. ...you can store fresh vegetables down there even.