How to Plan Food Storage for One Year
Long-term food storage is more than stocking up on flour and beans to feed your family for a year. Rather, it is about purchasing those types of foods that your family enjoys eating and storing them in case of a disaster. While flour and beans can play apart of your plan, canned, boxed and non-refrigerated convenience foods should have a prominent roll. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Prepare a room for your food storage. This can be an empty bedroom, or a portion of your basement or attic. Select a location that can be temperature controlled and kept free of insects or rodents. Line the walls of the room with shelving with the lower shelf, several inches from the floor.
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Begin calculating how much canned, dried or boxed food your family normally eats in a week's time. For instance, do you purchase three or four cans of tuna, two or more boxes of prepared meals, such as macaroni and cheese. Write these numbers down. Also, take into consideration infant formula and baby food.
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Look at alternative forms of protein for your food storage plans. Items to consider are canned fish, tofu and texturized vegetable protein chunks, granules and flakes. Once the meat in your refrigerator or freezer has been used, these items can supply your protein needs.
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Multiply the amount of food you have calculated by 52 weeks.
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Include water in your calculations. Plan on 2 1/2 quarts of water per person in your family.
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Begin stocking up by purchasing the additional storage food, as your budget allows, when doing your regular grocery shopping. For instance, instead of purchasing four cans of tuna, purchase eight or 12, placing the extra cans in your storage room.
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Rotate the food as you purchase more for storage.
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Tips & Warnings
Adding flour, dried beans and other dehydrated foods will require additional water and a heat source to cook. A camp stove, with fuel bottles, can be a solution to this problem if the electricity or gas supply in your area is out due to an emergency.
It is perfectly permissible to include meats and frozen items in your food storage plans. If the electricity goes out, eat what is in your refrigerator first and then use up what is in the freezer as soon as possible. Meats can be home-canned if there is more than you can eat in a few days.
