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Getting started prepping and building a food stockpile is overwhelming; I found it hard to get started. The best place to start is to build a two-week emergency food supply for yourself and your family and then expand from there.
To be honest, figuring out what to include in your emergency food supply is frustrating because you have no idea what your situation will look like. Will you have electricity? Do you have a means of cooking if the grid goes down? Will you have to bug out?
It’s impossible to know the answer to all of these questions, so you have to do the best that you can. I will give you a list of foods you can buy to build a two-week emergency food supply.
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Considerations When Creating a Two-Week Food Supply
When you look for examples of two-week food supplies online, you’ll find all kinds of different lists. Most are essential foods, but some people opt to simply buy ready-made buckets with MREs that have enough calories to feed your family. These are expensive but get the job done.
When you’re building your emergency food supply, here are some considerations:
The Size of Your Family
The first thing that you need to think about is the size of your family. On average, adults need around 2,000 – 2,500 calories per day; kids need at least 1,000 calories or more. So, when planning your food supply, think about how much your entire family needs to eat each day.
What You Eat
Making a stockpile with foods that you don’t eat won’t make an emergency any easier. The goal might be survival, but stocking foods that you never eat nor enjoy will make a challenging situation even harder for your family.
I suggest stocking foods that are calorie-dense and also ones that your family enjoys. Don’t be afraid to add comfort items. During an emergency, we all need comfort.
How You’ll Cook the Food
I suggest that you stockpile foods that don’t need to be cooked, as well as foods that are easy to reheat. If all you need is water and heat, that’s an ideal meal to make. You never know what your emergency will be like.
Also, make sure you have an emergency way to cook food. This might be a grill, solar oven, or camping stove. I suggest having a few ways to cook foods.
Electricity Might Be Gone
Many emergencies involve the electricity going out, like a snowstorm or a hurricane, so you want to make sure you are stocking non-perishable foods for your two-week emergency stock pile.
When the electricity goes out, you should focus on eating all of the perishable foods possible and preserving them, if you know how. If you have a grill, campfire, or gas stove, it’s possible to use a canner to preserve foods.
Eat through as much of the perishable foods first, then move to the non-perishable foods.
An Example Two-Week Emergency Food Supply
The most popular two-week emergency food supply list comes from City Prepping. This popular YouTuber developed a list of what people might need for a two-week emergency food supply, and the list is decent.
Here’s what City Prepping includes on their list of emergency food (make sure to watch it):
- Rice
- Canned meat
- Beans
- Oatmeal
- Canned Fruit
- Pancake Mix
- Canned Soup
- Powdered Milk
- Canned Vegetables
- Cereal
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Peanut Butter
- Coffee or Tea
- Honey, Jam, Syrup
- Packaged Meals
- Oil
- Spices and condiments
- Pasta
- Nuts
- Salt
This is a basic list and taking a look at it, you might wonder how you could turn this into meals for your family. I have four kids, so turning these items into 14 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners seems a bit on the farfetched side.
Do you feel the same way?
Let me show you my two-week emergency food supply and what meals I will make out of them.
A Realistic Two-Week Food Supply for a Family
You’ll need to adjust the quantities to match your family. First, let’s look at a list of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that you can realistically make with limited cooking abilities.
Breakfast Ideas
- Oatmeal packets
- Canned fruit
- Pancakes
- Cereal with powdered milk
Lunch Ideas
- Ramen Noodles
- Canned Soup
- Macaroni and Cheese
Dinner Ideas
- Spaghetti
- Canned Meat with Rice and Canned Veggies
- Soup – Dehydrated Bags (I prefer Bear Creek Soup which makes 8 cups)
- Chicken fajitas with Rice and Beans
Snack Ideas
- Peanut Butter Crackers
- Peanut Butter and Jelly on Tortillas
- Granola Bars
- Applesauce
What You Need to Buy
- Oatmeal Packets – 1 box per person
- Pancake Mix – 1 box per person
- Syrup and Jam – 2 bottles of each
- Canned Fruit – 5 cans per person
- Cereal – 2 boxes
- Powdered Milk – 1 or 2 large resealable bags
- Ramen Noodles – 2 or 3 boxes
- Canned Soup – 5 cans per person
- Macaroni and Cheese – 4 or 5 boxes per person
- Pasta – 6 to 10 boxes
- Spaghetti Sauce – 6 jars or more
- Parmesan Cheese – 2 containers
- Canned Meat – 8 to 10 cans per person
- Bags of Soup – 4 Bags
- Tortillas – 6 packages
- Rice – 10 pounds
- Beans – 10 cans
- Crackers – 1 to 2 boxes per person
- Peanut Butter – 1 jar per person
- Granola Bars – 1 pack per person
- Applesauce – 1 large container per person
- Oil
- Spices and condiments
- Sugar
- Coffee and Tea
- Salt
Make a Plan
This is just an example. Come up with four or five meal ideas that you can rotate for your family for two weeks. Remember, this is an emergency; the meals don’t have to be fancy. Your goal is survival.
After you make a list of meals that you can rotate, figure out what you need to make all of those meals multiple times and decide what to add to your food supply. Then, don’t forget to add plenty of water to your stockpile. You need one gallon of water per person per day.
Don’t stress. Figuring out how to build a two-week emergency food supply shouldn’t be complicated. Keep your mind focused on the goal, figure out what you’ll feed your family, and buy those items. You’ll be prepared, and you’ll feel ready to take on anything.
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