Prepping food is, of course, a key aspect of a family’s Preparedness goals. As the “Rule of Three” suggests, a person can typically only last 3 weeks without food. So having a solid plan around food prepping is incredibly important. In today’s blog post, we are going to review 5 types of food prepping for emergencies. 

72 Hour Supply Recommended by the Government 

In just about any FEMA or Preparedness website sponsored by the government, you will find the recommendation is to prepare our homes with at least 72 hours of food and water. Now, whether 72 hours is a useful timeframe (or not) is not the main point in this section. We are only using this as a placeholder for the most often used short timeframe for preparing emergency supplies. This really can be a simple task, and with some review of our own personal stock I dare say almost all homes in the US have this already, three days of food readily available, whether they believe it or not. We really are a nation of plenty, and without even realizing it, most homes have at least some stocks of food that could be rationed out to 72 hours.  

Therein lies one of the serious issues, rationing. In times of emergencies, many people who are not prepared mentally, would see dwindling supplies in their cupboards and immediately think they need to go out and gather more to stock up, “as the storm approaches.”  We do see evidence of this in many big cities affected by hurricanes, tornadoes, and larger storms every year. News stations seem to love showing images of the empty water and toilet paper shelves days ahead of these proverbial storms, which causes more concern for the average citizen. 

An uncomplicated way to approach the 72-hour food prepping recommendation is to buy in pairs. Meaning, when you’re at the grocery store acquiring items your family eats on a normal basis, consider adding a second can or package of pasta to slightly increase the amount in your smaller pantry or cupboard. And then, keep a simple running inventory of items, or make them readily visible. This way you can recognize if something is getting low, you can purchase more the next time you are at the store. Also, by inventorying or making the items visible, the first response to the “dire” images from the media will not need to be run out and buy more stuff you do not need. 

Stock the Pantry so you can Shop the Pantry 

Now that we have our short-term supply covered, we can begin considering longer time frames for food. An interesting term gets used in some preparedness circles, “shop your pantry.”  Mainly this means, when you run out of an item in your kitchen, such as bar-b-que sauce or chicken stock for soups, you can go to your own pantry to “shop” for more. Afterall that is where your initial stock should be, within your own home pantry. 

As we did above to prepare our 72-hour stocks, use the “buy-in-pairs” method to build up this stock within your own pantry over time. In this case, keeping a running inventory of the items in stock becomes a bit more important. You do not necessarily want to keep buying more supplies, and accidentally stock more of something you may not need. Especially considering you could be low in another item. 

But even if you store additional items your family may not need immediately, having these items on hand will start to build a level of comfort and peace when challenging times arise. One key point to emphasize again here is to purchase items your family regularly uses or eats. This is especially important to keep in mind so that your shelves do not become overflowing with useless items the family will never eat.  

Additionally, when walking through the grocery store some days, look at the expiration dates on the packaging of items. When it comes to dried pasta, canned foods and oil, there is a very long shelf life for these items. And in exceedingly tough times, non-perishable food that is long past its expiration date can still be used. It often only means the flavor is a bit less quality and the nutritional value might have reduced slightly.  

Finally, as part of the “shop your pantry” efforts, let’s introduce one more important term, cycling. Cycling simply means using the oldest food first when shopping your pantry. As you review your pantry storage efforts, consider placing new items toward the back of the row or stack, so you are more likely to use the oldest first by pulling from the front of the row. As well, it becomes important to start labelling each can or package as it’s added to the pantry. Just keep a little sharpie pen hanging in the pantry area, and as you add items in, write a quick month/year marker on the top or side of the packaging. This way even if you make a mistake in the cycling of the items, you can still quickly verify you are using the oldest items first in your day-to-day cooking. 

Full Storage Plan for at Least 1 Year of Food Prepping 

Now, if it is your desire, you can start moving toward a more prepared home for longer term events. Mormons, as an example, have a directive from their spiritual leadership to store the “bare minimum” of home, clothing, and protection for challenging times. Whether you are a fan of that faith group or not, the fundamental practice of keeping stores of items you may need for a year is sound. Yes, they do use the term “bare minimum” to represent a year of food and they include recommendations for longer periods of time where possible. Also note, they include recommendations for clothing and protection along with the food, which can be incredibly important additions to any preparedness plans – but not in the context of this post today. 

So how can we begin putting a plan into action to build a one-year inventory of food (and possibly water) supplies? Begin by using the practices stated above, and organization will play a key role in successfully accomplishing this set of goals. Start with the “buy-in-pairs” method to continue adding to stores effectively. Keeping the inventory flowing on a first in, first out basis will help the family to ensure that the stores stay fresher, longer. Continuing this process over a period of months can easily build the stores within your home pantry. As you will find out quickly enough, space and variety quickly become nagging issues.  

There are many options for providing better organization of the space you do have. We’ve probably all seen the 12-15 can dispensers that automatically push the oldest to the front for you. These are great for canned items, but keep in mind the need to provide different options for the assorted sizes of canned goods. There are also building plans available online for wooden contraptions that allow you to store massive amounts of canned goods within small areas (like within the area between studs in a wall). These are particularly useful when your pantry is limited on space. Now, this effort mainly considers the storage of items like already canned foods, to bring organization to the food stores you have available.  

As mentioned above, the next nagging issue will be variety, because, although we could exist, and maybe even thrive, using canned or packaged foods alone, eating the same foods everyday will not be joyful in the least. So… start a garden. If you are fortunate enough to have a large yard and the time and energy to maintain a garden, take the opportunity to start early. Having a garden in which you are able to grow some fresh vegetables, and even some fruits and nuts will offset the often-boring meals you might get from canned and packaged foods. And if you have the space for larger crops like fruit trees and expansive plants like sweet potatoes, take advantage of growing more and use alternative growing methods like companion planting and permaculture.

Knowledge is most definitely power when it comes to gardening. Each growing season you will learn more about what grows in your climate and soil. And even if you only have limited space, for instance an apartment or condominium, consider using vertical gardening or hydroponic methods indoors and near a window. There are some very impressive examples online of “living” walls within a home, in which the plants grow up a trellis, or within PVC pipes with holes, and it really can add to the beauty of the home. This will not only allow you to extend your growing season but will also allow you to monitor and protect the items as well. 

Please do not be confused to think that in a small vertical garden within a rented apartment a family would be able to grow enough food for a year. Quite the contrary, trying to grow one’s own food source completely will be excessively difficult to prepare for properly, and lends itself more to the homesteading movement. Much more planning and organization would be required for that level of effort. 

Emergency Foods and MREs 

Before we move to the final option, any discussion of emergency food prepping should include at least a mention of emergency rations and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat from XMRE). MREs are packaged food with readily available warmers that were traditionally used by the military for short term missions. Although they are not the lightest food source for soldiers to carry into potential combat situations, they do provide nearly 4000 calories per package. Theoretically, if the recommended daily allowance for a person is 1500-2000 calories, just a couple of these packages could potentially provide sustenance for several days. This is, of course, a fantastic alternative in an emergency event, especially when considering portability. So, it makes sense, at the very least, to include MREs in the long-term planning for preparedness in any household or community. 

What about Emergency Rations? The most interesting example of how to describe these little power packs is Lembas, those relatively flat cakes made popular by Samwise Gamgee in the JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings series. They are basically a block of food substance, with minimal taste (not bad tasting, mind you), but high levels of calories, typically 2000-3000 calories for a small block of food. Emergency Rations can be obtained from just about any online source, including the likes of Amazon, and they are typically very inexpensive considering the number of calories included in such a small package. It is true, Emergency Rations are not the most tasteful, but consider the name and the many potential use cases, and it is easy to understand why one should augment their preparedness planning with these effective items.  

• Have you ever been stuck in traffic on the beltway for a couple of hours?  
• Have you ever been travelling a long distance and had a highway shutdown due to a large pileup in extreme weather?  
• Have you ever been on a day hike and realized you forgot your lunch back at the car or base camp? 

Now nobody is going to starve to death stuck in traffic, even for a day, but it sure would be a comfort to realize after a few hours of waiting, that you have nearly 6000 calories of a cake-like substance readily available in your emergency kit in your trunk. 

The Ultimate Solution for Food Prepping: Homesteading 

Finally, we get to the ultimate solution for sustainable food preparations, the homesteading approach. Homesteading can mean different things to different people, so let’s define with our own words.  

“Homesteading is a sustainable way of life in which the individual or family unit can grow, process, store, cook and eat their own food substances to maintain a healthy, and varied, means of caloric intake.” 

Of course, it can mean a lot more, but homesteading takes the family unit back to a time when they were able to survive and thrive within their own environment with limited need for outside support. Homesteading includes significant capability in gardening, even to include the level of actual farming potentially large fields and orchards. So that a family has a seasonal effort to plan, grow, harvest and store proceeds from the family plots of land. Assorted crops can not only be used for the family’s sustenance, but additionally could be used as barter with similar minded groups in trade. Using out of season provisions such as greenhouses can be used to extend the growing season for certain crops and allow the family to grow crops not native to their climate region. 

Homesteading could include many layers of a family’s meat sources as well, such as raising chickens for eggs as well as meat. With chickens, eggs can be a tremendous source of protein for a hungry family. Additionally, eggs can be stored for over a year in a jar with certain processing. Eggs could also be dried for longer term food prepping. Raising goats, pigs, and cattle in similar ways for meat, and/or milk is an often-used alternative to purchasing store bought meats. Meat from processed animals could also be jarred and stored for long term.  

Finding means to regularly store food and other items for longer time periods is particularly important to the homesteader. Jarring, canning, smoking, drying, and pickling (among others) are all unique ways the homesteading community will prepare for the times when the land is not providing in real time. 

For the homesteader, establishing a means of barter with items of excess production or skill can make for a fantastic way to augment the family’s needs. For instance, if the family has a plot of land that happens to grow an excess of corn that is unneeded by the family, they can exchange it for other fruits or vegetables that might contain more vitamin “C.”  Or if the family has a respectable number of goats producing milk, the family may use the excesses of milk to produce cheeses to be used in exchange for meats from the local farmer’s market. 

Conclusion

As you can see, preparedness in relation to food supply can be a complex and multi-faceted endeavor. For the beginner prepper or person just entering this exciting world, it helps to start simply. Focus on the immediate potential hazards to gain the most benefit from food preparations. Make sure to focus on foods and tools the family uses most often and build up the 72-hour supply with most haste. The urgency should be a bit more relaxed at this point because the impact of most potential emergency scenarios is greatly reduced with this solution. In this process, you will likely be building out “get-home-safe” vehicle kits or Bugout Bags. Do not forget to consider MREs or E-Rations for this exact purpose. 

Once to that point, focus on a two-week supply, but build it over time using the “buy-in-pairs” method and some decent organization. As time, energy, and space allows, begin to focus on what it will take to build a longer-term supply of food, clothing, and protection (maybe even a year’s worth). This effectively becomes an asset over time and allows the family to relax in those times when most of the population is scrambling during emergencies. 

@genxtalkin