Do you have an emergency food supply? After trying to live 30 days on an Emergency supply of food, I have learned a heck of lot more about how I will be preparing for emergencies in the future. Telling you exactly what you need in YOUR emergency food supply would be next to impossible, BUT there are a couple of things that you should seriously think about when you are building your supply. They are all things that I can totally admit, I hadn’t thought about.
So, here you go, food for thought, literally:
- Store more water than you think you could possibly ever need. Or, better yet, locate a water source nearby and invest in a water filtration kit.
- If you plan on having dried food, like beans and rice, make sure you have the means to cook it, should the power go out. It’s all great to store dry beans indefinitely, it’s not so great if you have no means to add heat to cook them.
- If the idea of planning breakfast, lunch and dinner for every member in your family overwhelms you {it does me, honestly}, consider investing in a freeze dried package. I did THIS ONE, and I can honestly say the food was awesome. I did not feel deprived on taste at all. The only thing I would say is that I would have ordered the bigger pack next time.
- Make sure to store spices and seasonings as well. Plain rice and beans leaves a lot to be desired, my friends. It’s like eating Elmer’s glue. Seriously. I learned this the hard way. In the event of a real emergency, you will want the comfort of taste, I promise. Here are a few of my favorite spice combinations.
- Think about possible emergencies, odds are, you will burn a lot more calories, should a real disaster strike. Your body will be working harder to stay warm or cool, and you may be physically exerting yourself more. So, make sure to load up on high protein items. Consider peanut butter, canned beans, canned meats {tuna, salmon, chicken}. All of which will help sustain you, without taking up much room in your food storage supply.
- If you aren’t going the freeze dried route, consider items that are easily portable meals in a can. Soups, chilis, etc. can be eaten straight out of the can–no heating necessary. P.S. Make sure you have a manual can opener handy. 😉
- Multivitamins can help supplement your nutrition, if variety isn’t available. At least they may help to safeguard you from illnesses.
- Remember to store pet food. Your pets will want to continue eating in the event of an emergency, and sharing your food storage may not be the best use of your resources.
- Make sure to rotate everything out regularly. Buy stuff you would normally eat so that you can rotate your supply easily.
- If you are a coffee/tea person, store some instant coffee/tea and dried powdered milk to use as a creamer.
- Planning is KEY. Plan all of your meals out, and list ALL of the ingredients you will need to make them. Then, multiply those ingredients by how many days worth of meals you want to be able to sustain yourself.
- After being a wee bit, ahem, hungry during my challenge, I really recommend counting the calories out in your meal plans. Make sure you have around 2000 calories per person per day {at least}. The stress of an emergency is enough, no need to add being hungry into the mix.
- Last but not least… CANDY. Or something sweet {hard candies store a long time}.
How about YOU, any must-haves that I missed in your emergency food supply?
~Mavis
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Rochelle says
At the same time as you were doing the emergency-food-supply challenge I was dehydrating apricots from our trees. I wanted to send you some in the worst way, but you’re no cheater! Dried fruit, and now Valley Foods, are in my emergency kit.
You inspired my husband and I to do a mini challenge of our own. We bought the Valley Food deluxe one month supply for one and ate only that plus what was already in the house. I swore of off the grocery store and the only thing we bought was produce from a local stand on the way home from hubby’s work.
I really liked the Valley Foods. The 5 serving pouches were super handy for the two of us. I’d cook one pouch at night and give myself one serving and one and a half servings to hubby for dinner. That left two and a half servings to divide up in the same way for our lunches the next day.
Oh, besides dried fruit, I’d include Emergen-C vitamin powder. No sugar or dye, color comes from beets. Something flavorful for your water and a daily dose of vitamins. (Use only one per day). I like the kids formula because it has less vitamin C.
Deborah from FL says
You got me thinking about that part where you prepare the meal and save a portion of it for another meal. Does it have to be refrigerated? And if so, what would you do if there was no way electricity (coolers with ice will only last so long)?
Rochelle says
It does have to be refrigerated, so in a real emergency I’d only prepare what we could eat. The Valley Food packages have a zipper seal thingy so no problems there.
Deborah from FL says
So you could make a single meal at a time? That would be great!
Sorry to be a bother, but this topic interests me greatly.
Thanks for responding. 🙂
Rochelle says
No bother, the subject really interests me too!
Yes, you can make one meal at a time. I suppose the tricky part would be deciding how much one meal is. To that end I would devide up the dried portions either in half or fifths using bowls or jars and ‘eye ball’ it. Then I would look at the instructions to see how much water was needed to cook the five portions and then mentally devide that and jot that down; probably with a sharpie right on the bag.
The breakfast items came in much larger portion sizes so I used a scale (because I can be fussy) and measure out two serving sizes into snack sized baggies. I put what was leftover of the breakfast items into a quart sized mason jar and slipped the jar back into the packaging. This was unnecessary because the packaging had a zip lock, but it made me happy.
Deborah says
To help the hard candies to last longer, vacuum pack them, either in a bag or in a jar. If it’s humid, they will get all melted and sticky. Not fun! I am also canning some meats. Chicken, beef and ground beef. I think I want to try canning some ham also.
Jenn says
I have go bags ready for all my dogs on the event that we need to get out of dodge pretty quick. I go through them once a year to make sure that everything is sealed and rotate out the food. I vacuum seal enough food for all of them for three days plus they all have water, food bowls, an extra collar and leash and treats that are also vacuumed sealed. One of my fur babies has arthritis in his leg, it only bothers him occasionally, but I vacuumed sealed three of his pain pills that the vet prescribed for him. My hubby and I also each have a go bag that includes food, water and a change of clothes.
Karin says
Something to consider adding for an emergency kit is a solar cooker. One can easily be build with a couple cardboard boxes and some aluminum foil (lots of websites have instructions). Of course, it has to be sunny outside to use it but it could be very useful in a power outage. We love ours and use it all the time for cooking anything from rice to meat. I find it very fun to be able to cook without using any electricity or fuel. It cooks low and slow like a crock pot.
Deborah from FL says
I have a similar go-bag for my 3 cats. Several of my additions were due to learning the hard way.
My cat carriers each contain a towel (for comfort) and a favorite toy, ready to go. There’s a place on top of each kennel with a lid that snaps shut. In each (under the lid, for privacy reasons) I’ve written their name, my name, and my contact info. Their collars and leashes get store in there.
In addition to food and water, their kit includes photos of me with each cat (in case we’re separated and I need to show he’s mine), a sealed package of cat treats, and a couple of plastic sealable bowls for pouring their food and water into. I also have a clean litter box, s smallish box of litter, a scoop, several small sealable bags for scoop-time, larger bags for stashing the small bags, and lg black bags for disposals. Most importantly, a bottle of Ozium to spray the air as needed. A litter box + 3 anxious cats in a small unfamiliar space = undesirable aromas. With Ozium, a little goes a long way. It does the trick without being overpowering. Love that stuff.
Chrystie says
Eggs! Did you know that, properly stored, they last for several (7-9) MONTHS? Also you can FREEZE them! Both in the shell raw, or individually frozen in ice cube trays and then transfer to a zipper freezer bag. Pull them out to thaw before you need them! I have noticed that the ones that freeze can get a little thick, but the cooked outcome is the same as fresh. 🙂
Robin Wright says
I buy Princess Lexi’s food in a 28# bag and freeze 2 weeks of her food (28 cups) in bags (the kind that sucks the air out and seals it). I rotate every month. works for us. Beans and rice also. Tons of water, we live in socal.