Emergency Food – How Much Is Enough?
I hope by now you understand the importance of owning a good stockpile of emergency food with a long shelf life for yourself and your family. Along with water, it’s the most important thing you can store for a crisis, and I can’t imagine trying to survive following a disaster without it.
But, how should we define “good?”
Is it a 72-hour supply? Is it one week? Is it a month? Is it three months? Is it a year? Is it two or more years?
The single biggest problem with trying to figure out how much emergency food is enough is that we don’t know how long a crisis will last. A weather event might knock out power for only two or three days, at which time things will start to go back to normal and store shelves will become well stocked again.
An extreme weather event, on the other hand, might knock out power and disrupt the food supply chain for a week, while a cyber attack on the electrical grid could put Americans in the dark for a month or more.
And what about a physical attack on the grid, which could mess everything up for several months? And, God forbid, what if an enemy or a massive solar flare causes an EMP resulting in a complete breakdown of the grid for a year or more?
How much emergency food you should have stockpiled depends on a variety of factors, including your personal finances and the size of your family, and maybe the amount of proper storage space you have.
I think we can all agree that the more emergency food, water and water purifiers we have stockpiled, the better. Personally, I’d like to see us all build up from a three-day supply to a year’s worth, and that’s something that can be accomplished slowly over time.
So, what’s the right amount for you and your family? Only you can determine that. But there’s one thing I do know: having no emergency food stockpiled is the wrong amount.
If you have 2 or 3 or 4 people in your family? You need to have enough food to accommodate them for one year. That is a lot of food. luckily the food is freeze dried and lasts up to 25 years. does not weigh to much. It will encompass the whole top of your suv, van or truck. It’s a big bag of food. If you have two trucks or vans, it’s easier to distribute the food. I think its good for you to alternate your food consumption at a 30 – 70% . Always replace what you use maintaining that one year supply. This way you don’t run out. :)
God Bless you for Feeding the hungry after flooding in Houston. You are true Christians and Americans. God bless You
Who would I talk to about being part of our NW Emergency Preparedness Leadership Forum?? We have the Oregon Convention booked for November 1-2nd. Over 200 vendors and expert speakers from across the country to share,collaborate and educate on what is needed from every sector of life effected by emergencies and disasters.
Serving You: Eric Cummings
Good point Frank — How much is enough? My wife and I are “empty nesters”; but when we had kids at home we had stockpiled a years supply of food for 8 people. We have sent much of it with them when they went out on “their own”. They have all expressed gratitude for teaching them to “BE PREPARED”! One very important aspect of emergency storage often overlooked is to use the stored food as part of your monthly menu planning. But always re-stock what you use. It keeps your supply fresh and up to date. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !
Reuben
Congratulations, Reuben. You’ve done what many people don’t do, which is pass along the self-reliant baton to the next generation.
This is really a tough question to answer because America and Americans haven’t felt hunger on a mass scale since the Great Depression. There are those of us that have felt the pain of hunger because we were starving students or perhaps our family was so poor that we just didn’t have the means to feed ourselves due to being out of work or a personal catastrophe. Try going 3 days without eating and you will see what it feels like.
It is for this reason you need to think about preparing for the worst. The average grocery store has enough food to last one week. But what happens when there is a run on the store? Will you be SOL? The average family has food that will last them 5 to 7 days. Then they will be hitting the bottom of the barrel, or so they will think. This is where you need to think outside the box and learn to fix things from scratch. When you do you will realize that you have more food than you really thought you had. But until then you will stick with your creature comforts, your luxury items.
What happens after a week? Say 2 weeks or a month? Will you be able to weather out the conditions? Think of the fire in Canada at Fort Henry. It will take quite some time before they are back and running on a regular routine again. You could think of rationing your food stores; but it will require discipline and the entire family will need to pull together as one unit. How often can you trust your kids to do the right thing? Will they stick to the plan? Will you or your wife be able to stick to the plan? It requires discipline of the toughest kind.
The only thing that can and will save you and your family is to be prepared. Have a preplan on what you and your family will do in case of an emergency. Have can food available in case of an emergency. (Don’t forget you will need drinking water.) The more you prepare the better off you and your family will be. It you can expand your preparation to last a month, 6 months, a year or longer then you will be able to rest in the knowledge than you will survive while those around you will be running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
If you can’t count on yourself to survive and survive in the way you want to; then you can you depend on, the Government? They might arrive in time; then again they might not, just ask the folks that were at the Supper Dome during hurricane Katrina. It took the Federal Government 10 -14 days to come to their aid. The only reason why the Government did so is because it was a national disgrace, a blot on the good name and image of the United States. The United States is one of the first to go to the aid of foreign countries; but the last to go to the aid of its own citizens.
So if you are on a fix income or have little money; then start small. It is better to have something over a period of time when you don’t need it than to need it now and have nothing to show for it.
When I go shopping I add a few things that I can store away for that unexpected emergency. Over time I will be come well stocked. There is no need to go broke when you don’t have to. Check out this website it will aid you in what you will need to carry you through tough times, preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com. This will give you the foundation you need to prepare for the unexpected emergency. Good Luck folks.
By helping yourself and your family first, you can then consider helping others. You will be doing it from a a position of power instead of a position of dependence.
Basically, I would like to purchase almost everything you sell. Do you offer a discount on combined purchases or a payment program? I am disabled and would appreciate any help you could offer, including dicount coupons etc. So far I have purchased your 3 month food supply and your water filter. I would be grateful for any help you could offer Thank so much for this service you provide.
Pamela Cattabiani
Send me a sample of your free coffee Frank?
You can get your free sample of our coffee here: https://secure.food4patriots.com/checkout/coffee/f4p-free-coffee-offer.php
I’m on a fixed income. Instead of trying to sell the whole survival kit of fruits and veggies or of protein and meats why don’t you sell smaller kits that don’t cost so much. I can’t afford to buy a whole kit in any one month, but I could afford to buy maybe a fourth of a kit every-other month or so, until I have what I need for my husband and I.
What happens to the solar generator is there is an EMP?? Thought you sold a protector with the generator.
Yes—I would like to know the answer to that question also, altho I have had a regular solar system put on my roof. I have a small house and have been saving up for 3 years. Have been able to put in limited solar—-enough to survive if the grid goes down. My sheds that house the batteries and converter, etc. are metal, and grounded with a wire attached to a ground stake. But I have wondered if anything else can be done to protect the solar panels in event of EMP. Does anyone know?
Actually all studies available have found that an EMP will diminish solar arrays by about 20% and do very little to your batteries as they are not “solid state” devices. Any controllers you may have with circuit boards may be fried, but it is actually not conclusive because they are usually in boxes that can limit the damage. 80% of our cars are actually protected enough as the shell acts as a faraday cage. All (very few) tests on their longevity have shown them to be shutdown during the pulse, but are easily restarted or fixed with little effort.
Is EMP an issue? Sure, but all evidence shows that it isn’t as bad as we think, but the fact is that there are not enough tests that have been conducted to have a earnest answer. But at the end of the day we should prepare to survive without the need for any electrical resource.