Emergency Food Storage Tips

When the SHTF the last thing you want to worry about is where you’re going to get your food.

As Hurricane Katrina proved, the government and FEMA can’t be relied upon to save you in time of emergency, so it’s up to you to keep yourself and/or your family fed for as long as it takes for the emergency to subside or for you to start growing and sourcing fresh food.

The 72-Hour Kit

Also known as the extreme bare minimum in emergency food storage, the 72-hour kit represents the amount of time it should take for help to find you or for you to get out of harms way.

The US government feels that they can offer shelter and rescue supplies within 72 hours of just about every major disaster than can occur. Because of this, the idea of a 72-hour kit should be considered far too small, and instead the new bare minimum should be 1 week of emergency food storage.

So how do you plan 1-week worth of food for you and your family in a way that’s both easy and safe to store while giving the proper nutrition? Good question.

Balanced Diet

Emergency situations require a balanced diet far more than everyday life, yet people feel they can survive on rice and beans indefinitely, since they’re both easy to store. Emergency situations require a great expenditure of energy and effort, meaning that keeping items like fruits and vegetables in your diet isn’t only a good idea; it’s absolutely necessary.

Obviously you can’t keep fresh fruits and vegetables around for emergencies, so preserving them is your best option. Preserved food stores far longer than fresh, and done correctly preserved food retains most of it’s nutritive value.

Freeze Dried Food

The mother of all emergency food storage, freeze-dried food is dehydrated fruits, vegetables, and meats that while devoid of their water content, continue to be nutritious and filling.

For many freeze-dried foods, all you have to do is add some water and in a few minutes you have reconstituted fruits and vegetables that are ready to be cooked with. While MREs and other pre-packaged foods are fine for a day, possibly two, when it comes down to a week or more of survival, you really need to start making balanced meals, and freeze-dried food is perfect for this.

You can buy freeze-dried foods in bulk based on recipes and use them like you would any other ingredient. Now, instead of relying on a freezer to keep fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats for extended periods of time, you can keep them for a few years.

Special Considerations

When planning your emergency food storage, you need to really consider any special needs you or your family has in the way of food. Food sensitivities and allergies need to be taken into account, as today it’s easy to go to a doctor if you get sick, but when the SHTF, you’re not going to be so lucky.

If you have someone allergic to gluten but you need to have some in your prep, make sure it’s separated enough as to not interfere with that person’s food. If someone is highly allergic to nuts, you need to take that into account when storing your food. No nuts can be anywhere near the emergency food storage or else the person could have an allergic reaction and easily die without access to a hospital.

Think about these things now, and build your emergency food stores accordingly.

Additional Guidelines

When adding items to your emergency food storage plan, make sure you’re picking things that you don’t mind eating. Ideally, you need to cycle food out of your storage to make sure it’s fresh and ready in case of emergency.

In other words, if you hate green beans, don’t buy freeze-dried green beans just because they’re on sale.

Make sure at least one of your meals each day is totally balanced. You need energy to survive and that comes from food and nutrition.

Add vitamins if your food stores are inadequate or if you’re worried about getting proper nutrition.