Food to Stockpile In Case of Emergency

Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes, and you never know when one will strike. Prepare for the unexpected by purchasing food to stockpile in case of emergency.

Keeping an emergency stockpile of dry goods and other shelf stable foods on hand can not only bring you peace of mind in an emergency, but it can also enable you to help family and friends who might be in a tight spot. Learn the best way for you to build a food stockpile on a budget.

this …

Jump to:

• Why It’s Important
• Check to see what you already have.
• Choose food you would normally eat.
• Make a meal plan.
• Focus on sale items.
• Expand your canned goods horizons.
• Buy extra to share.
• Store it separately from your regular supplies.
• More Ways to Build Your Pantry
• What would you do?

If we’ve learned anything over the last few years is that life can take some unexpected turns. Food shortages, supply chain issues, and inflation have wreaked havoc on your grocery shopping habits of yore. It’s tempting to buy extra whenever possible.

Yet, we haven’t run out of emergencies, either. Earthquake, flood, tornado, hurricane, and the random pandemic can leave us feeling scattered. One thing to help calm the nerves before, during, and after is to have a supply of food to stockpile in case of emergency.

Why It’s Important

Interestingly, when my kids were little, I often worried about what we would do in case of an earthquake and the resulting upheaval (no pun intended) in utilities and services. We live in earthquake country and the risk was high.

I found that once I did some basic emergency preparedness, my worries decreased dramatically. The risk was still there, but I had a plan for it. And I had food for my babies.

I could continue on with normal life, leaving the worry for tomorrow… for tomorrow.

When you take a few extra steps with emergency food storage, you bring yourself peace of mind and an extra layer of protection against the hardships natural disasters can bring.

Let’s look at what you can do and what food to stockpile in case of an emergency and how to do it respectful of the grocery budget.

Check to see what you already have.

Depending on how you’ve shopped over the recent past, you may have food stuffs coming out your ears. It may not be a question of what food to stockpile, but where to store it and how best to use it.

After ten years of doing a yearly pantry challenge and talking with other home cooks doing the same, I think it’s safe to say that many of us already have several weeks of food on hand.

Do a good inventory to see what you have already before you buy more food to stockpile. Chances are you may have more than you think.

Examine the shelf life of what you already have. Items with more than a year until their dates can be relocated with your emergency supplies.

Choose food you would normally eat.

Depending on what emergencies could occur where you live, you don’t need to stock MREs. Unless you normally eat those.

It is a good idea, though, to buy food items you can store at room temperature since certain emergencies do put your fridge and freezer at risk of power loss.

But make it shelf stable.

The best food to stockpile is what you would normally eat, focusing on foods that are shelf-stable. Prioritize those items you really can’t live without like baby formula or foods for special diets.

Since packaged foods do have “best by” dates, you want to use things up in a reasonable amount of time. So don’t spend a fortune stocking up on food you don’t like. Focus on buying a few extras of what you normally consume.

Good examples of pantry stable foods include: oats, crackers, beans, rice, popcorn, canned and dried fruit, canned vegetables, coffee, chocolate, tea, sugar, canned or dried milk, nut and seed butters, canned meat and fish, broth and bouillon, pasta and other grains.

Our budget grocery list features a wealth of good food to stockpile that is also shelf-stable.

Make a meal plan.

The same rules apply when prepping for an emergency as they do any regular day: Don’t stockpile food that you don’t have a plan for.

Instead, have a meal plan ready so that you can keep to a routine and know what to do with the food you’ve socked away. You’ll spend less money and you’ll eat better, too!

In the event of an emergency, knowing what to make with your stockpile of food will help keep you calm as well as fed. And when it’s time to rotate your storage, it will be easy to use it up!

Consider a 14-day supply and how to meal plan for it:

Fourteen days includes 14 breakfasts, 14 lunches, and 14 dinners, plus snacks. That’s 42 meals per person, not including snacks. It’s a basic math problem and honestly, a fairly simple process. 

1. Print out two copies of this printable meal planner. It can hold a month of dinners or a week of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners.
2. Start plugging in meals that you know you like, based on foods that you already have, what’s on sale, and what can last awhile. Following your typical habits will help keep things on an even keel.

Meal planning for a month or a few weeks is a pretty simple process. It will help you make good use of what you have and calm your nerves, knowing that you’ll eat well for the duration.

Focus on sale items.

Hopefully you have plenty of time to shop at the grocery store for your emergency supply of food. If so, consider building it up over time, taking advantage of sales whenever possible.

This week I found these kinds of prices:

• coffee $6.99/12-ounces
• crackers $1.49/box
• canned fruit $3.99/12-pack of cups
• dry powdered milk $5.99/10 packets

I bought extras to have on hand and will swap them out with what’s already in our emergency stockpile.

Your sales may vary, but the idea is the same. If you’re stockpiling food, try to save money while you’re at it. Thankfully, some of the most budget-friendly foods are also shelf stable.

Expand your canned goods horizons.

I grew up on canned foods, as did my parents. But, I tend to cook with more fresh ingredients on a regular basis. However, canned foods have an advantage over fresh. 

Canned goods are usually ready to eat from the can — hello, new convenience foods! — and can be stored virtually anywhere. Even if you don’t have a lot of space to stock your kitchen, you can store cans all over the house: under beds, in the back of closets, wherever you’ve got a little random space.

These Pantry Meals focus on canned goods and are absolutely delicious. Feel free to load up on these things, knowing you’ll have a way to use them up:

• beans
• rice (dry or the instant cups/packets)
• canned tuna
• canned tomato products
• spices
• pasta, noodles, ramen

Buy extra to share.

Buy enough food to stockpile for a couple weeks for your household and to share with friends and neighbors if needed. Not everyone has the time or resources to really prepare, so if you can swing it, have a little extra just in case.

Store it separately from your regular supplies.

I keep a few rubber totes of emergency supplies separate from my kitchen. This is for two reasons:

1. They are packed and ready to go in case we needed to evacuate.
2. I can shop my kitchen without concern over what would we do in an emergency.

In the totes, I also have my meal plans and any recipes I might need to access in order to use the food. In the aftermath of a true emergency, I don’t want to go searching for a recipe!

At the end of each summer, I pull out the tubs and remove anything that needs to be used up. I store things with dates out far enough so that I when I rotate stock, I still have three to six months to use up that item.

In this way, I get to prep for my emergency and avoid food waste all in one go.

While we hope that an emergency won’t strike too close to home, it pays to be prepared. Even if it’s just a little peace of mind.

More Ways to Build Your Pantry

This post was originally published on March 12, 2020. It has been updated for content and clarity.