The first 72 hours after a disaster are a critical time. Quality preparation can determine whether an emergency situation turns into a survival situation. Today, we’re going to talk about food. It’s necessary to live, it’s limited, and it’s actually pretty easy. There’s a list of steps that need to be followed, and considerations to be made.
Who Are You Feeding?
The first step in assembling a 72 hour food supply is deciding who you are feeding. We’ll take a couple with three kids as our example, and we’ll use it as the basis for our 72 hour series. The reason that knowing this matters is that you have to decide what you can feed your family, how much they’ll eat, and any allergy considerations. Assemble a list, and and move on to the next step.
How Much Do You Need?
The easiest method for calculating how much food you’ll need is to get your family, and feed them. Assemble meals based on what you’ll be storing, and then take note of what your family will eat. Double that value, because in a disaster, you’ll be tearing up calories. If your kids won’t eat it, just store it for the next day.
Budgeting Your 72 Hour Kit
This is a super simple process. Just select your food, something that you can store relatively easily, such as rice. Devote 5% of your monthly budget to the 72 hour kit until you reach capacity. It really is as simple as that.
But what about Storage?
A lot of people want to have a 72 hour kit that they store for ten, 15, or 20 years. This seems impractical to me, and I think a six month life span is perfect. At the end of the six month period, you eat your kit, and measure the change to be sure you’ve got enough for everyone still. It gives you a continuous measurement of how things will go in an emergency. Honestly, if you’ve doubled your portions, you shouldn’t run short, but it can happen.
Ultimately, people over complicate things like 72 hour kits. They buy fad supplies based on “serving sizes”, dehydrated meals, and other stuff they just don’t need for a 72 hour kit. But it really is as simple as it sounds. Yes, it’s convenient being able to store food forever, but its just not practical for most. So keep this handy info in mind for your 72 hour kit, and feel free to drop some feedback in if you want.
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