Long Term Food Storage Items

A crisis or emergency is a high stress time for everyone. It is especially important to have high energy foods available during these times. Food that is high in calories (even empty calories) is recommended for these times. If you plan ahead, you can have meals that are not only high in energy, but also nutritious. You can live several days without food if you have water to drink, but you won’t be very comfortable when you are used to eating three meals a day plus snacks. Besides the nutritional benefit you gain from the food, there is also a positive psychological benefit of doing things the way you did before a disaster. Eating three meals a day will help make the stressful time seem more like normal. Food will probably be provided at an emergency shelter for you and your family, but government officials and relief agencies usually take 72 hours to get set up. You have the responsibility to be self reliant and plan your own meals for those three days. Foods that are lightweight, compact, and require little preparation are the most suitable for your 72 hour kit. • Take in enough calories to enable • Include vitamin, mineral and protein supplements in your stockpile to assure adequate nutrition. • If the Electricity Goes Off... • FIRST, use perishable food and foods from the refrigerator. THEN use the foods from the freezer. To minimize the number of times you open the freezer door, post a list of freezer contents on it. In a well-filled, well-insulated freezer, foods will usually still have ice crystals in their centers. Consume the foods only if they have ice crystals remaining or if the temperature of the freezer has remained at 40 degrees F or below. Covering the freezer with blankets will help to hold in cold. Be sure to pin blankets back so that the air vent is not covered. FINALLY, begin to use non-perishable foods and staples.