3-Month Food Supply

How to Start on Food Storage

Are you wondering how you can have even a 3-month food supply, let alone a full array of food storage products because you live in an apartment in the city?

Some families live on farms, with chicken coops and cows and root cellars and gardens the size of city blocks.

At the other end of the scale, are families who live in apartments in cities. The closest they come to farm life is keeping a canary in a birdcage.

You say you wouldn't know a root cellar from a root canal? (just kidding) And the only thing you make for dinner . . . is a reservation? Or a home-cooked meal means reheating last night's leftovers from the Mexican take-out restaurant?

Not to worry - there's hope for you.

You are not doomed to be an emergency preparedness statistic if you don't know how to bake a loaf of bread or have a basement full of food. You will, however, have to put a little more thought into being prepared than someone who is used to cooking from scratch or on a regular basis.

But remember that if the power does go out, the local deli or nearest take-out restaurant will most likely have no power either. Or if you are out of work for several months, just showing up at the nearest McDonald's with a smile will probably not result in a free meal. If the power is out, that restaurant will want cash too. So plan now and try a few practice runs.

Fool-Proof Method to get started:

Decide on several recipes that are easy for you to fix and that you and your family are willing to eat. Choose two breakfast meals, two lunch meals, and two dinner meals. Keep them simple. Then, stock up on all the ingredients it takes to make each of them seven times. Once you have all the ingredients, you will have a food storage plan for two weeks!

For example: You might choose oatmeal and pancakes for your two breakfast meals, soup and tuna salad with canned fruit as your lunch meals. Dinner might be spaghetti with canned corn for one meal and homemade pizza for the second. (Yes, there is such a thing as "homemade" pizza - and it's easy.)

Now write down what ingredients you need for each meal.

• Breakfast One: Oatmeal - oats, milk (dry or evaporated), sugar, cinnamon, salt.
• Breakfast Two: Pancakes - pancake mix, or flour, baking powder, etc.), jam or syrup (or ingredients to make syrup).
• Lunch One: Soup and canned fruit - soup (canned or dry mix), canned fruit.
• Lunch Two: Tuna Salad and crackers - tuna, pickles, mayonnaise, crackers.
• Dinner One: Spaghetti - pasta, spaghetti sauce (or ingredients to make sauce, or just canned spaghetti), hamburger (if you have a freezer), canned corn as side dish.
• Dinner Two: Pizza - packaged pizza mix (or flour, baking powder, etc.), can of pizza sauce, pepperoni, can of mushrooms, pineapple, or whatever you like on pizza.

You might also want to have some ingredients, mixes or packaged treats on hand. Old-fashioned non-microwave popcorn stores well and is a good option.

If you're really serious about having at least a 3-month supply of food on hand, be sure to download the Inventory Spreadsheet with Worksheets & Calculator on the Checklists page so you can keep track of what to buy and what you have.

Repeat the Process

When you have stashed away all of the ingredients for these meals, choose two more each of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and repeat the process.

Repeat this until you feel satisfied that you'll be able to take care of yourself or your family for a while. Be sure to check out our page on emergency cooking so you'll know what to do when your power is out.

If you follow this process, you can at least be somewhat prepared in an emergency, even if you have no intention of changing your current lifestyle. Set your goal for a 3-month food supply.

Take our little survey and compare your progress with others. (You will see the graph when you click "Submit".)

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