Emergency Food

I'm preparing a little earlier this year for hurricane season, mainly because I want to build a three month supply of non-perishable food in addition to the six month supply I already have. I may or may not extend the emergency supplies to another six month's worth so my guy and I can take care of ourselves for a year without food supplies, if need be. Anyway, since my regular pantry is full, I had to find a new place for the emergency pantry, which I did in the laundry room (and yes, I need to better organize the bottom shelf, which I'm still using for bird seed as well as hurricane supplies.)

My calculations for how much food to store are bit complicated (and it will require me to use other areas for storage as well.) I'm going by our necessary calorie intake and our specific diet requirements (no sugar or any fat besides olive oil for me, and I try to keep sodium to a minimum for both of us) but it roughly works out to 450 portions to make 180 meals for me (I don't eat breakfast) and 270 for him. The canned food can be eaten without preparation or heating, but I'm also including some comfort foods and soups that we can cook on the grill or the firepit. Having a hot meal can really boost the spirits.

We also need about 1-1/2 gallons of drinking water every day, which works out to 135 gallons for three months, or 8 bins (see my post here about using plastic bins for water storage.)

I'm starting to save gallon plastic containers again for toilet and washing water storage, and to freeze and keep in our fridge and freezer to help preserve our perishable food if we lose power for an extended period of time. I did this during Irma and it saved us from running our generator constantly.

It will take until June (when hurricane season starts) to build up an extra three month emergency pantry, as I'm only buying a week of extra food and supplies when I go to do my regular shopping. I'm also buying inexpensive food or food on sale, all of which has at least one year of shelf life, too. This is food that I can rotate into our regular pantry before it expires and as I replace it with newer food. Finally I'm buying food that my guy will actually eat -- I've been trained to dine on basically anything, but if he can't have something he likes he'll definitely starve.

It may not be necessary to store all this food, of course. I'm also not trying to sound an alarm of any kind, or say that we all need to become preppers (a community I respect and have learned a lot from over the years, btw.) I grew up in hurricane country, so I like to be able to take care of myself and my family in an emergency. It gives me peace of mind. Food and water are musts for that. If you want a good guide to what you should store in the event of an emergency, FEMA has one here.