How much food do I need?

How much food should I store?
There are two main types of food storage. First, you need to have food that can be accessed quickly during the first 72 hours of an emergency. Second, you need to have long-term food storage for sustained emergencies, food storage, quarantines or other situations.

Short-term food storage
Your short term food storage should include easy to prepare, easy to carry food that you could take with you should you need to evacuate. This should be a minimum of 1200 calories per person per day for a minimum of 3 days. MRE’s, freeze-dried food in pouches or emergency food bars are ideal for your short term food storage.

Long-term food storage
Your long term food storage should typically be stored at your home in a cool, dry place to prolong the shelf-life of your food. Generally, you should store a year’s supply of food for each person in your household. If this isn’t feasible, start with a one month supply and add to it as often as you can until you have built up a year’s supply. Freeze-Dried food in #10 cans are ideal for long term storage because they have a shelf life of up to 30 years. This limits the frustration of rotating food or throwing food away that you typically don’t eat in your regular life (like navy beans and wheat for example). It’s also nice to store ready made meals like Mountain House entrees that require no preparation and little fuel and water to reconstitute and taste absolutely delicious!

You can think of your long term food storage as an insurance policy. It can be critical in an emergency and for the months following while the economy and your life regain normalcy. It can also help sustain you during individual times of need. Nothing can replace the peace of mind you feel knowing you and provide for yourself and your family in any situation.

Fast Facts

• Store at least 1,200 calories per person per day for the first 72 hours of an emergency.
• Store a year’s supply of food for sustained emergencies, food shortages, quarantines or individual times of need.