Thoughts About an Emergency Food Supply

[EssOne]

This post is intended to present our ideas about maintaining an emergency food supply. It does not deal with a complete emergency plan, only the food part. If you are considering such a thing, I hope it will answer some of your questions and hopefully we have done some of the leg work for you. It is intended to be simple, obtainable, and easily transportable should you ever be faced with an evacuation, as well as being long-lasting and highly edible without cooking. Here 'tis

 

 

 It all fits on an 18"x48" shelf

We aren't preppers or survivalists, but we have nonetheless

maintained our emergency food supply since Nine-Eleven, over 13 years ago. We

don't believe in Zombie attacks or the complete meltdown of Western

Civilization, but we do believe our country is vulnerable to disruption by our

enemies and that in such an event it may well be up to the individual family to provide for itself

without outside assistance for a time.  We have also seen essential

services disrupted by natural disasters like Katrina and the megastorm up in

New Jersey last year, so that is also on our minds as we do all of this

emergency planning stuff. Now, here's another thought you might consider: There

are certain events and circumstances in our region that, if they came to pass,

would leave local government no choice but to order the immediate evacuation of

your home area. If that happened, chaos will prevail and there will be neither

food nor hotel rooms available on the evacuation routes. Even fresh drinking

water would be very difficult to come by. So our emergency food and water

supply is designed to facilitate quick loading in vehicles, easy consumption

without cooking on the road, and long shelf life in such an event. With all

that in mind, we have set up our supply to last us roughly a month on a

survival basis, (but certainly not a culinary delight basis.)

 

 

Here are the factors we considered to be important, presented in disorganized,

willy-nilly fashion:

 

 

(1) Emergency planning means to plan for the worst thing that can hit you,

which in the case of an emergency food supply would be your inability to cook

food. So in designing our emergency supply we chose canned foods over dried foods

or MRE's because of their ready availability, variety, longevity without

refrigeration, ease of immediate consumption, and much lower cost. We also

chose only those canned foods that can be eaten out of the can cold. It isn't

the best thing that ever happened to you, but I was in the C-Ration Army and

have eaten a heck of a lot of canned food cold from the can and it will sustain

you. We also went in big for high calorie foods, since it only stands to reason

that food will be in short supply and you want every smidgen of nourishment you

can get in relatively small quantities. 

 

 

.(2) Assuming that the worst season this could happen in would be winter, we

went very heavy on protein, which is essential for keeping you warm. (Note that

combining rice and beans gives you a complete protein.)

 

 

 (3) We went heavy on the foods that have a can completely full of

product, like the Roast Beef Hash, SPAM Lite, Refried Beans, Spanish Rice,

Fried apples, etc, etc. Greens, corn, green beans, etc. are pretty useless for

providing the concentrated amounts of nutrition we want, and they have too much

water in the can. Having said that, we did throw in some watery veggies like

beets, carrots, and sweet peas just for variety and morale purposes, but these

have far better nutritional values than the others I mentioned.

 

 

(4) We went heavy on stewed tomatoes because of their high Vitamin C content

and because they make a good base for a cold slumgulleon stew.  I imagine

diced tomatoes would work well too.

 

 

(5) We went heavy on beans and bean products because of their carbs, calories,

low fat, and their high dietary fiber content.

 

 

(5) Getting away from sodium in canned foods is almost impossible, but I set an

arbitrary limit of 240mg per serving in our canned veggies, and kept it

as low as possible with our meat products. Be aware, however, that sodium

content will vary from brand to brand in the same product, so you have to check

each brand - i.e. Bush blackeyed peas have 540mg per serving, while Allens

blackeyed peas only have 240mg per serving. Also, in the meat department, SPAM

Lite has much less sodium than regular SPAM and Roast Beef Hash has less than

Corned Beef Hash. So we opted for the lowest sodium content in each product

category.

 

 

(6) We stuck mostly with name brands unless we knew for a fact that a

particular generic was as good, which didn't happen often. Our feeling is that

in an emergency we will have enough to contend with without having to suffer

third rate foods.

 

 

(7) We stayed away from canned prepared foods like pastas and so on, but they

are a consideration. We’re evaluating a 10 can pack of Ravioli to see if we

want to include it.

 

 

(8) It does no good at all to plan your supply around canned products and then

forget the can opener. So we have one high-grade can opener, one high grade

church key/bottle opener, and one good folding knife in each of our cars, and

another package of these is kept with the canned foods. They are wrapped in

Saran Wrap and then a ZipLok bag for rust prevention.

 

Tough stainless steel can/bottle opener

One of the best portable can openers on the market.

 

(9) Your supply must contain a transportable supply of drinking water, and

there are lots of ways to accomplish this. Here photos of the containers

we used. Our total supply is 29 gallons, of which we could realistically take

only about 10-15 gallons in the vehicles.

Recycled half-gallon tomato juice jug

2.5 gallon water storage container with spigot

(10) Your supply should contain a good supply of miltivitamins and any other

meds you need on a daily basis.

 

 Finally, we do indeed have a stove to take on the road with us. It is an old

fashioned Coleman gasoline stove that I've adapted to burn Propane as well as

gasoline. So heating food shouldn't be a problem, but if it is we're prepared

to eat cold food. OK, here is our supply as it now exists. (Cardiologists

please sit down.) There are some photos thrown in to give you some idea of the

amount of room it occupies. (It is all contained on a shelf measuring 18"x

48.") I believe the whole shebang would fit into, say, about a large

plastic tub and a half for transportation. Here goes.

 

NOTE IN THE PHOTOS THAT THE PULL DATES ARE WRITTEN IN LARGE NUMERALS ON THE FACES OF

THE CANS. ALSO NOTE THAT NONE OF IT REQUIRES REFRIGERATION.

 

 FOOD FOR EMERGENCIES

 

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

 

105 each, 14 oz. cans of vegetables and fruit, as follows:

 

10 cans of Spanish rice

 

10 cans of refried beans

 

5 cans of mixed pinto and great northern beans

 

5 cans of blackeyed peas

 

10 cans of mixed vegetables

 

5 cans of shellie beans

 

5 cans of honey carrots

 

5 cans of regular sliced carrots

 

5 cans of sliced white potatoes

 

5 cans of sliced beets

 

5 cans of sweet peas

 

15 cans of stewed tomatoes

 

10 cans of fried apples with cinnamon

 

10 cans of Lite peach slices

 

MILK PRODUCTS

 

10 each, 14 oz. cans of Vitamin D Evaporated Milk

 

 

BREAD

 

18 each, 16 oz. cans of B & M molasses bread with

raisins

Excellent bread with a three year shelf life.

 

 MEATS

 

60 cans of meat products as follows:

 

 15 cans of boneless chicken breast meat (Sam’s Club)

 

25 cans of Lite Spam

 

10 cans (16 oz.) canned ham from Aldi's. (similar to SPAM, but better IMHO.)

 

10 cans of roast beef hash

 

 OTHER

 

 29 gallons of fresh

water

 

100 Lipton tea bags

 

2 each, salt and pepper shakers

 

400 multi-vitamin tabs

 

500 enteric coated aspirin tabs

 

We certainly don't have all the answers. This is an unsophisticated, easy on the budget, way to get a month's food in the barn. it's a work in progress, so we are constantly evaluating new products, like the ham from Aldi's. it's just the way we see things. Hope it helps answer some questions.

Edited March 31, 2015 by EssOne

[Dolomite_supafly]

There is no way I would evacuate and go anywhere the government tells me to go. There are way too people in charge who do not care about my family or I. There is no way I could carry everything so the best option for me is to bug in. Bugging in makes it easier to defend myself because I can guarantee any place the government wants you to go will be a gun free zone.

 

I have enough food to sustain my family for a long time without hunting. I have plenty of game in my area and I will defend it the same way I would defend my family's life because if you take the game you are potentially causing my family to starve and I will not allow that to happen. Same thing goes for any other resource I have access, and a right, to. People, not you, think they are going to bug out to the hills but there are already people in those hills and the majority do not want outsiders coming in taking resources. And those that think they are going to take my resources are going to be met with an overwhelming amount of firepower.

 

For water I have a well with a hand pump I made but I also collect water in barrels and all of that will be filtered through a Berkey filter. I would STRONGLY suggest getting some sort of water filter. You can buy personal water filters for $20 that will filter 250+ gallons of water. They are a lot easier to carry on your person than the amount of water the average person will need.

 

And if you think about it population centers are going to be a lot easier to survive in than the "hills". You already have shelter, you know the area, your supplies are already there and when help comes it will be in the population centers first. Water is much easier to come by in the cities. It is much easier to defend as well. Travelling will be nearly impossible from the population centers and if you do make it out you will be easy pickings for bands of thugs.

 

The average person would not last more than two weeks in the hills, they would die from dehydration or the elements depending on the time of year.

[eRay]

There is no way I would evacuate and go anywhere the government tells me to go. There are way too people in charge who do not care about my family or I. There is no way I could carry everything so the best option for me is to bug in. Bugging in makes it easier to defend myself because I can guarantee any place the government wants you to go will be a gun free zone.

 

I have enough food to sustain my family for a long time without hunting. I have plenty of game in my area and I will defend it the same way I would defend my family's life because if you take the game you are potentially causing my family to starve and I will not allow that to happen. Same thing goes for any other resource I have access, and a right, to. People, not you, think they are going to bug out to the hills but there are already people in those hills and the majority do not want outsiders coming in taking resources. And those that think they are going to take my resources are going to be met with an overwhelming amount of firepower.

 

For water I have a well with a hand pump I made but I also collect water in barrels and all of that will be filtered through a Berkey filter. I would STRONGLY suggest getting some sort of water filter. You can buy personal water filters for $20 that will filter 250+ gallons of water. They are a lot easier to carry on your person than the amount of water the average person will need.

 

And if you think about it population centers are going to be a lot easier to survive in than the "hills". You already have shelter, you know the area, your supplies are already there and when help comes it will be in the population centers first. Water is much easier to come by in the cities. It is much easier to defend as well. Travelling will be nearly impossible from the population centers and if you do make it out you will be easy pickings for bands of thugs.

 

The average person would not last more than two weeks in the hills, they would die from dehydration or the elements depending on the time of year.

 

My thoughts exactly. There is no way I can carry enough stuff to last even a month. No matter how bad it might get, I will board up and take my chances at home. If they get me here they could have gotten me easier someplace else.

[peejman]

I've got 2 cases of TOTM's and three 7 gallon jugs of water which could be transported relatively easily.  I suppose I could dump most of what's in the pantry in a couple boxes and haul that too.  That said, I don't intend to go anywhere unless I have to. 

[Randall53]

Canned Bread?...I didn't know that existed. Looks like a good list. I have noticed that the cut rate stores (Aldi etc...) and the store brand canned goods from grocery stores or walmart contain about double the sodium as name brand canned goods like Campbell's , Del Monte,  Green Giant and so forth. I like the canned stuff over the super high priced freeze dried emergency stuff. We just buy what we usually eat and rotate it so the sell by date stays good. Oh, and we also have a couple of Life Straws for water and there is a creek nearby I could get water from. I'm definitely staying put unless they drag me out forcibly.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Randall53

[Dolomite_supafly]

Canned Bread?...I didn't know that existed. Looks like a good list. I have noticed that the cut rate stores (Aldi etc...) and the store brand canned goods from grocery stores or walmart contain about double the sodium as name brand canned goods like Campbell's , Del Monte,  Green Giant and so forth. I like the canned stuff over the super high priced freeze dried emergency stuff. We just buy what we usually eat and rotate it so the sell by date stays good. Oh, and we also have a couple of Life Straws for water and there is a creek nearby I could get water from. I'm definitely staying put unless they drag me out forcibly.

 

They will have to carry me out.

[Someotherguy]

I have a bag full of supplies to get me HOME if i happened to out-n-about when something goes down...I do not intend to bug OUT, ever...My last stand is my homestead, i will NOT give an inch more...I will die defending it before i run out the back door...and if i see that my defense is hopeless, then i will set the whole thing ablaze with me right in the middle of it before i lay down and give away what i have worked for my whole life...

 

Some might say it foolhardy to not save yourself/family and let them have the home, and it may very well be, but sooner or later you're going to have to draw a line..My line is at my driveway...Not one inch more...

[seax]

The furthest I would go is to my parents house. Due to the ages we have survived to It would be foolish for us to do anything else. I was raised in the cold war and my father was in civil defense. We have always stocked food, medical supplies, and other essentials. I happen to be in worse physical shape than both my parents due to heart issues and diabetes. That is my main concern. I have tried to keep at least 30 days of daily meds ahead of my needs. Life has gotten so much more simple for me. I don't have to store anything longer than my meds will last. Except ammo You don't know how many trolls you might need to greet with extreme prejudice. ;)

[DWARREN123]

Everyone should be prepared for 3 to 5 days minimum. Can't tell when something will happen.

[ironsniper1]

Only thing I got from this thread is that I need to buy some spam and go to gfs and buy a can of 6lbs of corned beef hash


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited April 1, 2015 by luke9511

[EssOne]

I mention evacuation only from the standpoint of the portability of this food supply, not whether or not it's advisable. The point is that if you are forced to boogie, this supply is transportable and edible without cooking. Nothing more.

 

As for the advisability of leaving, I agree that unless I'm in the kill zone of an impending nuke or chemical/biological weapons attack, I'll stay home too. But having survived the entirety of the Cold War, I believe those things to be entirely possible any more, so I'm going to plan as if I believe so. I have destinations where friends can put us up in all four directions from here. The least I can do is show up with some food.

Edited April 1, 2015 by EssOne

[Grand Torino]

I do have a backup plan for bugging out but only as a last resort. The only reason for that is his place is more remote and much more easily defendable but I to have no immediate plans on leaving my home. 

[EssOne]

I wouldn't either if I didn't live darn near within sight of a chemical plant and an army ammunition plant.

Edited April 1, 2015 by EssOne

[Clod Stomper]

When putting back food for an emergency, low fat and sodium are not a priority. Quite the opposite. If I have to last a while, I want calorie density. And sodium is a necessity of life as well. Just get enough water to keep it balanced.

I'm one of those whose home is in the hills. Unless I know you or you have some valuable skills, ammo and food, don't plan on bugging out to my home.

I don't have a bug-out bag. I have a get-home kit.

[crashgordan]

Essone, good for you.
Thank you for taking a thoughtful approach to being somewhat self reliant.
Strong work and I encourage you to keep it up.

[EssOne]

Essone, good for you.
Thank you for taking a thoughtful approach to being somewhat self reliant.
Strong work and I encourage you to keep it up.

Thank you for such kind words, sir. Best wishes to you as well.

[ehull20000]

Great post.  I wholeheartedly agree with your recommendation to keep food that requires little if any cooking as well as water.  My family keeps two weeks of food and water at all times just in case of a regional disaster such as flood, fire, tornado, disease or earthquake.  

 

Being able to leave your home proactively under safe conditions is much preferred to abandoning it reactively to outside influences.

 

Not trying to poke anyone in the eye, but just a thought for those of you with land please understand that none of you are as strong as all of us.  

[eRay]

Only thing I got from this thread is that I need to buy some spam and go to gfs and buy a can of 6lbs of corned beef hash


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That should be enough to get you by.

[ironsniper1]

That should be enough to get you by.

i don't know last one I got of corned beef hash lasted me a week


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Randall53]

Many of the prepper sites on the internet have articles about the government taking everything in a national emergency, even the food and supplies of the public, preppers and horders etc.... Some say Obama signed an EO laying claim to everything we own in a major national emergency. If the grid is compromised in the right way, it won't matter. The fat lady will sing and millions will die. Hope and pray that day don't come. Edited April 12, 2015 by Randall53

[Rob 2.0]

OP, great read.  Thanks for that