Emergency Food Storage

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Home food storage is an overlooked subject for most people. Larger families seem to have lots of food on hand but the reality is that goes very fast. Single people always seem to have nothing to eat. So if a disaster struck everyone will be rushing to the grocery stores depleting their stock. At the same time trucks will not be available to re-stock them. Within 3 days everywhere will be out of food. Unlike water food will be non-existent. So this is one of the top 3 priority preps. Even though you can live without food for 3 weeks after day 1 you will start to break down mentally without food. Remember, it's not always about just surviving, you want to live comfortably.

Note that I will include a list of items to focus on at the bottom of this article. So if I seem vague on what to stock exactly that is the reason why.

Pantry

A good starting point will be your pantry. If it's already stocked then you can skip this part but if not that's the first thing you want to do. These will be things you use on a regular basis. Some examples are: Canned Soups, Rice, Pasta, Condiments and crackers. Once you use up the items they can be restocked from your Emergency Food stock which I will mention in the next section.

Emergency Food stock

In this section I will talk about the core of your food stocks. This can be in places like your basement, closets, bed room and garage. I found that the garage works very well for me. It grants me quick access and can be replenished extremely easily from the grocery store. I have seen people with entire rooms full of food. The first thing you want to do if you don't have the spare space is to buy tiered shelving units (If you own your home or are very good at building things then you can install shelving on your walls for this). I personally like the metal ones from Home Depot. The one I have is a 5 tier unit that's over 6 feet tall. It's half full of food and water which is over a month's supply for a single person. For example; I have cases of bottled water, water containers, rice, pasta, condiments, canned food, survival food, additional empty water containers, seeds and an alcohol stove. So this is my go to for something I run out of in the pantry (make sure you replace it next shopping trip), main source or food and water in case of disaster and I use some when I go camping (Although most of my camping gear is separate).

Extended Emergency Food stock

This is something I personally do not do but I want to mention it. If you are very concerned about a long term disaster then what you can do is hide food caches everywhere in your house. These will be items that years of shelf life and are well sealed. Some examples are: Canned food, rice and survival food. You can gradually build this stock by buying a few extra items a week and shove them in every available spot in your home. Some examples are: under your bed, any closet, storage tubs and boxes.

Primary Item list (Long Term)

Note that these numbers are for unopened commercially bought products past expiration date that are stored at room temperature. They have the potential to last longer but the quality will be degraded. A good rule of thumbs is if it smells or looks bad chances are it is.

  • Freeze Dried Survival Food (25 years)
  • MREs (25 years)
  • White Rice (5 years)
  • Dried Beans (Indefinite)
  • Powdered milk (10 years)
  • Instant Coffee (20 years)
  • Waxed cheese (25 years but hard to find)
  • Honey (Indefinite)
  • Salt (Indefinite)
  • Dried Spices (4 years for flavor)
  • Granulated Sugar (Indefinite)
  • Olive Oil (3 years)
  • Vinegar (Indefinite)
  • Baking Soda (Indefinite - To test it's potency put some vinegar in it and if it bubbles it's good)
  • Baking Powder (1 year)
  • Cornstarch (Indefinite)
  • Popcorn (Indefinite - not microwavable types)
  • Pasta (2 years)
  • Tomato Sauce (1 year)
  • Canned Vegetables, fruit and meat (2 years)
  • Peanut Butter (1 year)
  • Pickles (2 years)
  • Oatmeal (2 years)
  • Chicken Broth (1 year)
  • Tea (1 year)
  • Individually wrapped hard candies (2 years)
  • Ketchup and Mustard (2 years)

Secondary Item list (Short Term - Under a year)

  • Mayo
  • Cereal
  • Protein or Granola bars
  • Flour
  • Pancake mix
  • Cornmeal
  • Dry Yeast
  • Crackers
  • Dried Fruit
  • Nuts
  • Jam
  • Chocolate

Final Thought

Make sure you start an Emergency Food stock today. To help you start it you can integrate that stock with your normal daily food intake. Include some official survival food. Gradually aquire extra items every week. Experiment on what food works for you.