Food
Food is imperative for survival.
If you don’t have it, or know how to produce or catch it, you have a problem. Here we are going to discuss ways to store food in case of an emergency.
For years FEMA recommended having 3 days of food and water on hand in your home in case of a disaster. A while back they revised this and recommended having two weeks worth stored away. In my opinion, this should be the bare minimum everyone should have and you should really strive for a minimum of a 30 day supply.
The recommendation of 1 gallon of water per person per day is the BARE MINIMUM with the assumption you will just be sheltering in place. But in the event of a disaster you will likely be cleaning up or trying to secure your house and property and this will cause you to sweat and need more liquids to stay hydrated. The food your store may also require water for cooking and preparation so keep this in mind when storing water in your preps for an emergency.
The easiest foods to store in the event of an emergency are canned goods. These usually have a long shelf life of several years, and those are best by dates not expiration dates. Meaning they can still be eaten past the best by date as long as the cans aren’t swollen which is a sign they have gone bad. I have personally eaten canned goods 3-4 years after the date and had no I’ll effects from them. But it is always recommended you rotate out your stored goods whenever you have the chance.
It’s best to store things you like and eat on a regular basis, so these items can get rotated out regularly. I love Chef Boyardee for a quick meal (Spaghetti and Ravioli), I also use canned meats like chicken and tuna so those items are easily stored and rotated.
Canned chili, beans and soups are also a good option for easily stored meals. Keep in mind some soups may require water, so store extra water for cooking with.
Long term food storage options (10-20+ years) are freeze dried foods like MRE’s (meals ready to eat), freeze dried meats, fruit, veggies etc are available in cans and buckets through various manufacturers like Mountain House, Augason Farms and others.
Those can be expensive options that not everyone can afford though. It is possible to do these things on your own and we’ll go over a few of these.
In the prepper community, it’s popular to put away items for long term storage by bucketing them yourselves. A popular staple is beans and rice. Some might roll their eyes at the notion, but at the end of the day it will keep you alive. Beans and rice are cheap, easy to store and will last for years when stored correctly.
To do this, you’ll need to buy the materials (5 gallon buckets with lids, mylar bags and oxygen absorbers). You’ll also need a hot iron (clothes iron will work) to seal the bags after you fill them up. There are many videos available on YouTube showing how this is done, and I may do a video on it myself in the future.
What if I told you I can show you how to put away food that would provide 2 meals and roughly 2000 calories for one person and it only cost $2.33 per day? You could put away a month supply of food for one person for $69.97, or $209.93 for a family of 3. In these tough times you may not have an extra $200 at the end of the month to spend but if you have an extra $10 you buy a little at a time and before you know it you’ll have a months supply on hand. What meal is this? A simple spaghetti dinner! A 1lb box of spaghetti and a 24ounce can of sauce costs $2.33 with tax.
I plan on shooing some videos and posting them on YouTube showing how simple and easy it is to prepare and set aside emergency supplies for you and your family.
