A Solid Plan To Build A Two-Week Emergency Food Supply For A Family

It’s difficult to get started prepping and establishing a food stockpile; I struggled to get started. Building a two-week emergency food supply for yourself and your family is the ideal place to start, and then expanding from there.

To be honest, deciding what to put in your emergency food stockpile is difficult because you never know what your scenario may be like. Will you be able to use electricity? Do you have a way to cook if the power goes out? Will you be forced to flee?

You won’t be able to know the answers to all of these questions, so you’ll have to try your best. I’ll provide you a shopping list of goods to stock up on for a two-week emergency food stockpile.

How To Build A Two-Week Emergency Food Supply

If you search the internet for samples of two-week food supplies, you’ll come across a variety of different lists. Although most are necessary nutrients, some individuals prefer to buy pre-made buckets of MREs that provide enough calories to serve a family. These are pricey, but they do the job.

Here are some things to think about when putting together your emergency food supply:

The Size of Your Family

The first thing you should consider is the size of your family. Adults require between 2,000–2,500 calories per day, whereas children require at least 1,000 calories. Consider how much food your complete family requires each day when organizing your food supply.

What You Consume

Making a stockpile of items you don’t eat won’t help you in an emergency. Although survival is the aim, stockpiling goods that you never eat or enjoy will make an already difficult circumstance even more difficult for your family.

I recommend keeping calorie-dense items on hand, as well as foods that your family appreciates. Don’t be scared to include objects that will make you feel at ease. We all need comfort in an emergency.

How Will You Prepare the Food?

I recommend that you stockpile non-cooking foods as well as those that are simple to reheat. That’s a perfect supper to make if all you need is water and heat. You never know what kind of emergency you’ll have.

Also, make sure you have a way to cook food in an emergency. This might be anything from a grill to a solar oven to a camping stove. I recommend keeping a variety of cooking methods on hand.

Electricity Might Be Gone 

Many catastrophes, such as a snowfall or a hurricane, include the loss of power, so make sure you have non-perishable items on hand for your two-week emergency stockpile.

When the power goes out, focus on consuming as many perishable items as you can and storing them if you know-how. A canner can be used to preserve goods if you have a barbecue, campfire, or gas stove.

Eat as much perishable food as possible initially, then move on to non-perishable foods.

A Two-Week Emergency Food Supply as an Example

City Prepping has the most popular two-week emergency food supply list. This well-known YouTuber put together a list of things individuals could require for a two-week emergency food stockpile, and it’s a good one.

Here’s what City Prepping has on their emergency food list (be sure to watch the video):

• Packaged Meals
• Oil
• Pancake Mix
• Canned Soup
• Powdered Milk
• Canned Vegetables
• Spices and condiments
• Pasta
• Nuts
• Salt
• Rice
• Canned meat
• Beans
• Oatmeal
• Canned Fruit
• Cereal
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Peanut Butter
• Coffee or Tea
• Honey, Jam, Syrup

This is a simple list, and you might be wondering how you could turn it into meals for your family. With four children, turning these ingredients into 14 breakfasts, lunches, and supper seems a tad ambitious.

Allow me to show you my two-week emergency food stash and the meals I plan to prepare with it.

A Realistic Two-Week Food Supply for a Family 

You’ll need to change the amounts to fit your family’s needs. Let’s start with a list of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that you can make with your basic cooking skills.

Breakfast Ideas

• Oatmeal
• Canned fruit / frozen fruit
• Pancakes 
• Cereal with powdered milk 

Lunch Ideas

• Ramen Noodles 
• Canned Soup
• Macaroni and Cheese 

Dinner Ideas

• Spaghetti
• Canned Meat with Rice and Canned Veggies
• Soup
• Chicken fajitas with Rice and Beans 

Snack Ideas

• Peanut Butter Crackers
• Peanut Butter and Jelly on Tortillas
• Granola Bars
• Applesauce

What You’ll Need for the Next Two Weeks

1 box of oatmeal packets per person
1 box of pancake mix per person
2 bottles each of syrup and jam
Fruit in cans — 5 cans per person
2 boxes cereal
1 or 2 large resealable packets of powdered milk
2 or 3 boxes of ramen noodles
Soup (canned) – 5 cans per person
4 to 5 boxes of macaroni and cheese per person
6–10 boxes of pasta
6 jars or more of spaghetti sauce
2 containers parmesan cheese
8–10 cans of canned meat per person
Soup Bags – 4 Bags
6 packages of tortillas
ten pounds of rice
10 cans of beans
1 to 2 boxes of crackers per person
1 jar peanut butter per person
1 pack of granola bars per person
1 large container of applesauce per person
Oil

Make a Strategy For Your Two Week Stockpile

This is merely an illustration. Prepare four or five dinner ideas that you may alternate for two weeks for your household. Remember, this is an emergency, so don’t expect anything extravagant. Your main task is to stay alive.

After you’ve made a list of meals to rotate, figure out what you’ll need to make each of them several times and what you’ll need to add to your food supply. Then, don’t forget to replenish your stash with plenty of water. Each person requires one gallon of water every day.

Don’t be concerned. It shouldn’t be difficult to put together a two-week emergency food supply. Keep your mind on the goal, plan out what you’ll feed your family, and go out and get it.