How to Build a 30-Day Emergency Food SupplyFastDaisy Luther This feeling of urgency can make you feel hopeless and panicked, and thats not productive. Theres no time for a lack of productivity. Its time to focus and create your food supplyfast. If an event occurs during which you are unable to leave your home, you want to make certain that you can do this without assistance. Such an event could be a mandatory quarantine, self-imposed isolation due to a pandemic, civil unrest in your town, martial law, or even a terrible storm that leaves you stranded, with no access to the store. Generally I write about healthy food. I write about focusing on whole foods withoutadditives, and I firmly believe that is the very best way to build your food supply. I believe strongly in the value of a pantry that you will use day to day to nourish your family. You can learn how to build a pantry like that HERE and HERE. However, if you do not have a food supply waiting in your pantry, now is the time to focus on creating an emergency stockpilequickly. You can then add healthier options at your leisure. The quantities in this articleare per person, so youll need to multiply this by the number of people in your home.You can ordertheseitems online and get them to your door within a couple of days. Alternatively, you can shop around and try to find duplicates locally. You can also create a food plan, make a list, and go shopping, purchasing the highest quality items available, and repackaging them for longer shelf life. However you opt to build your food supply, please dont hesitate. If a worst case scenario occurred, the goal is to be able to feed your family for at least a month. How much do you need? There are a few different ways to calculatefood storage, but I find breaking it down by serving size to be the most practical. Dont rely on what a package calls a serving size consider the appetites of your family. You might have a couple of big eaters and a couple of people with birdlike appetites. The lists below are based on serving sizes for an average adult. Be sure to get a variety of different foods: On a 2000 calorie per day diet, strictly based on long-term storage food, the LDS (Church of the Latter Day Saints) says the average adult would need: These are purely subjective numbers, however. For example, if your family is gluten-free, you might eat more protein and produce than starchy carbs. You must take into account your familys health concerns, special needs, allergies, intolerances, likes, and dislikes. These are simply guidelines. Try to stick as close to your normal eating habits as possible, to lessen the stress of an already highly-wrought situation. Its also important to consider cooking times. If you never ever cook from scratch, will you suddenly want to make pots of beans and homemade bread? If the power goes out, will you have a way that youll be able to cook these foods? If youre trying to build a food supply quickly, consider ordering a kit with a months supply of meals in it. These arent going to be the healthiest or tastiest meals, but theyll stand between you and starvation. You may look at the prices of these items and say, Oh, I cant afford this. But you have to remember, this is enough food for an ENTIRE MONTH. At $150, that means youre spending only $3 per day on food. It honestly doesnt get much cheaper than that. Theres a variety of price points below, with the pros and cons of each. Youll notice on the list of extras that I recommended a gentle laxative. Some people, when dependent solely upon MREs or dehydrated foods, become constipated. I also recommended a high-quality multivitamin to help ensure youre getting the nutrition you need. The Augason Farms 30 Day Food Emergency Disaster Bucket contains 90 meals for one person. Thats 3 meals a day for a month. The daily caloric allotment is about 1850 calories, and the meals are just add water, so to prepare them, you only need the ability to boil water this could come in very handy during a grid-down situation. This is about $90, including the shipping. The kit contains: Relief Foods Premium 1 Month Emergency Food Supply seems to offer the most bang for your buck. At $166, including shipping, this bucket contains 150 meals that are guaranteed to be GMO and MSG free. Theres more variety in this menu, but oddly, no breakfast-specific offerings. I wouldnt be deterred by that, though, because breakfast is easily taken care of with powdered milk and dry cereal or oatmeal. From the same company is theRelief Foods Gluten Free Emergency Food Supply Bucket. This is certified to be free of gluten, MSG, and GMOs. It only contains 100 servings, some of which are not meals. This bucket costs $112, including shipping. A 28 pound starter kit contains wheat berries, oats, rice, beans, and flour for only $33.50. The downside to this is that most of the foods require extensive cooking times and would make for quite bland eating if you relied solely on this. If its in the budget, adding some fruits, vegetables, desserts, and dry milk can go a long way towards fighting food fatigue. Freeze Dried Vegetable Variety: 160 servings for $67 Dont forget to add an assortment of spices and condiments to make your emergency meals tastier. Up until recently, preppers have had something of a bad name in the media. However, as disasters strike America over and over, people are beginning to see the value in the way we do things. Its been proven time and time again that when issues occur, youre completely on your own. To learn more about basic preparedness, go HERE to learn how to get started. Finally, if you want to learn more, here are some booksand websites that can help you on your journey. Related selfnews Post Articles: Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, where this first appeared, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca If you enjoyed this article, please Vote for The Organic Prepper as a top prepping web site. 