Emergency Food Supply for Real Families

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Everyone agrees that having an Emergency Food Supply is just plain common sense, but I sensed there are a host of reasons most people don't actually follow through with a workable plan.

What do you do first? 72 hour kits? What if it is "the big one" and you need two weeks of food instead? Bug Out Bags? One customized to each family member by age, medical needs and by the way, are they old enough to even carry one in an emergency?

Oh, and food grade containers that are supposed to hold massive amounts of wheat for, like, 10 years? Ahhh... I can see the interest waning already.

That wheat is not going to be ground into flour and baked in your underground dutch oven when the emergency requires that you flee your home with family in tow when the earthquake or tsunami hits.

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Realistically, do you have in your budget right now to take on bug out bags for each member of your family? Don't let that stop you, just make a plan to put together the first one of your 72 hour kits, this one being for the whole family, a first aid kit.

After you have one finished it will seem easier to get started on one for your family members. Start with the most vulnerable person and work up the emergency food supply bags accordingly.

This means baby's bag first, including formula and water even if baby is nursing. You cannot be certain Mother and baby will be together or mother will be able to nurse for any reason.

Most of us who are making these 72 hour kits have a strong urge to nurture and protect. So my guess is you will be doing your childrens bags next, followed by all the adults in the household.

So what are we to do?

If you reside in a big City

First, consider where you live. If you are in a big city the odds are that you will have to evacuate your home in a huge emergency such as a flood (Katrina) or earthquake that leaves your home destroyed or dangerous for you to stay in.

You may be able to get out of Dodge if you are very quick and very lucky, but the reality of getting out of a dense city by car during an acute emergency are not good. Huge traffic jams and even police roadblocks are common on the freeways during these events.

Since you may be directed to community tents you will want to have an emergency food supply that is lightweight and portable. You must have at least 1 quart of water per person per day with you, bare minimum.

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If this is your most likely scenario, you should plan to store foods that contain no water and are very portable, such as Meals Ready to Eat (MRE's), freeze dried meals and high calorie bars.

The best prepared city dwellers putting up an emergency food supply should also store extra high nutrition foods at home. Do not expect to make it to the grocery store for your emergency food supply once news of the emergency hits. The place will be literally cleaned out. That's the truth. There will be no food on the shelves.

You can over time contribute to your own little mini store of the kinds of food your family loves to eat on a regular basis. Think canned foods, chili, soups, tuna, canned fruit, bottled water, bottled fruit juices.

Rotate these regularly using a list of ingredients on the shelf and religiously restock as you use each item up.

There are two extra good reasons for having a home rotating emergency food supply made up of familiar foods, not the fussy expensive MRE's and survivalist rations.

One, you will have food to feed your family when the stores go belly up, and two, you can use these cans of food in a longer emergency as barter material. You need blankets and your neighbor needs food? Done deal.

If you live in the suburbs or country

The chances of being able to remain in your home increase depending on the nature of the emergency. If you don't live near a beach a tsunami is not your problem. City buildings coming down on you in an earthquake won't be either.

You may live in a fire zone though, or on a fault line, or you may simply have to endure three days of power outage during an emergency that leaves city infrastructure out of commission.

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In that case, you should have well stocked 72 Hour Kits for each family member. These kits are short on luxury items, so consider what your needs really are. If it is 6 degrees below you are adding blankets, and if it is 100 degrees you will increase the amount of water available to each persons bug out bags.

Infants will need an entirely different set of emergency food supply (think formula and bottled water) than a 6 year old or an elderly Grandma.

Suburbanites and Country folks can go as far as they like with food storage ideas. I recommend after your 72 hour kits are complete that you add canned food to your emergency food storage area each week as you shop.

I look for sales of high calorie canned goods my family really likes, and I add as many extra cans as budget allows and sock them away for emergencies.

By the way, traditional power outages and even big emergency events are not the most likely thing an emergency food supply can help you with. In today's world you are more likely to lose your job or experience a longer than usual job hunt period.

With most of your food needs already taken care of, you can spend that money paying your mortgage and keeping your house.

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There are essentially three periods of emergency food supply needs to be taken into consideration.

1.72 hours is considered the acute phase of any emergency, and is what FEMA insists is the minimum time citizens are expected to take care of themselves and their families until normal government programs and city infrastructure can be restored. A large number of Hurricane Katrina survivors are advocating for a week or more of preparedness as the minimum, and for good reason.

2. Two weeks is considered a survival period, as people cannot survive harsh weather without shelter or go that long without water, no exceptions. So in addition to 72 hour kits you need to store at least two weeks worth of food, water and shelter/safety items.

3. More than two weeks is long term survival, which is very difficult to live through if you are unprepared. Only the most resourceful among us will be able to take care of ourselves and our families in a long term crisis situation.

Those folks who can do this have already put away large stores of an emergency food supply such as wheat, flour, beans, smoked meats and they also have seeds on hand for planting gardens.

When there is no power they know how to use a diesel engine to get water out of their well, they know how to convert an engine to run on vegetable oil, and they also know how to make that Bio-diesel in the first place.

This is not to alarm you if you are a professional of some sort, and not a diesel mechanic and farmer. You can take steps right where you are now to make your kits, store your extra food and supplies and brush up on first responder aid and other simple survival skills.

I know you can do it, so forge ahead! And don't ever feel like you have to explain to others what you are doing or try to convince them you are wise to prepare.

Just do it for the sake of you and your family. You are also doing your community a favor, as the more people who can take care of themselves in a crisis, there is that much less panic, mistrust among neighbors and even looting in the streets. So let's all man up and get it done!

Family Security through Frugal Living from Emergency Food Supply