How to Calculate Emergency Food Rations
There's never any harm in being prepared. Whether your worry is about the next natural disaster or a nuclear apocalypse, taking steps to insure that you and your loved ones will be well-supplied in a worst-case scenario is a good way to help put your mind at ease. Stocking up on non-perishable food rations is an important part of this process, and one that requires some careful planning. Be sure to consider some important factors about your group and your situation when figuring out how much you'll need to buy. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Determine how many people you'll be feeding. Start with the number of people in your family or group, then ask how many outside people it's likely you may end up sheltering or helping as well. Depending on the disaster you're anticipating, you may want to be prepared for people to demand access to your supplies and plan accordingly.
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Calculate the number of required calories you'll need each day to feed the people you'll be providing for. Check a body caloric requirement calculator (see Resources) for each member of your group to determine each person's daily requirement, then add these numbers. Try to anticipate how much physical activity you'll be undertaking and whether you'll be experiencing cold temperatures, as both of these will change the daily requirement.
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Estimate how long a wait time you might experience before help arrives. If you're preparing for a worst-case scenario, look at previous historical response times that have occurred during disasters in your area and in recent history. To prepare for a worst-possible-case scenario (no help coming at all), you may wish to include enough emergency food to last until such time as your group can set up systems to produce your own food.
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Make decisions about nutrition based on how long your emergency might last. The longer your group will be relying on emergency supplies, the more important it will be to supply balanced nutrition and good sources of vitamins and minerals.
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Buy extra. Whatever amount of food you decide you need, stock half again as much. Though you may find yourself needing to be sparing during emergency itself, the time when you are stocking up is a time to be generous.
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Remember to include supplies of fresh water. A lack of water will cause death more quickly than a lack of food, but it can be easy to overlook during times when water is still available.
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