Emergency Food

Emergency food is one of the most overlooked items of a survival kit, whether it be short term or long term survival. Most people will buy one or two cases of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), store them and then forget about the food aspect of their surivival kit. But the thing that they don't think about is, how many people are they feeding and how many meals a day are they going to eat? A case of MRE's has twelve meals. Three meals a day equals 4 days for 1 person. What if they're feeding themselves, their spouse, and a child. 12 meals, 3 meals a day for 3 people, equals 1 day and a breakfast. Now if you think about the cost of a case of MRE's, (average $80 per case) you would have to spend a considerable amount of money just to feed you and your family for a week. How long were Hurricane Katrina victims out of their homes for? All I can say is, thank goodness for the American Red Cross, National Guard, and relief funds, because without them, alot more people would have died due to starvation and exposure.

Here's something to think about. Every payday when you go to buy groceries, buy a bag of rice, dry beans, and even a couple of cans of Spam to store away with the rest of your survival kit. For the most part, these items are fairly inexpensive, lightweight, have a long shelf life, and they are easy to prepare with just some water and a heat source. After a couple of trips to the grocery store, you will have enough food to feed your family for atleast two weeks. Don't forget that MRE's aren't as easily available as grocery stores.

Am I against MRE's? No. I think having a couple cases ALONG WITH other dry goods is the best combination. Not only are MRE's great sources of carbohydrates and proteins, but there is also a great deal of psychological benifits. What better way to keep the kids' moral up with some gum, or a Tootsie Roll? The newer MRE's now come with some pretty good stuff, like the milkshake powder (just add water), and all kinds of new meals that would rival any restaraunt. They also come with an accessory pack with contents such as: toilet paper, coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, gum, matches, and a alcohol wipe. Sometimes instead of the coffee, it will have cider mix or hot cocoa, it just depends on which main meal you choose. Along with the main meal, most meals come with a side dish (rice pilaf, mexican style), crackers, peanut butter or cheese, some sort of dessert, a plastic spoon, and a water activated heater. I have found that it is easiest to open the cardboard case and pack them in the bottom of my emergency box (a large rubbermaid bin), with my other items on top. Every meal is packaged in its own sealed packet, but I open them and empty the contents. The main entrees and side dishes are in a seperate small cardboard box that I will also discard. I will then store everything in it's own ziploc bags. Main meals and side dishes go into gallon size bags, drink powders and mixes go into smaller quart size bags, and miscellaneous food items go into another gallon bag. The spoons and accessory packet will go together in a seperate ziploc bag also. I make sure that everyone in my family carries atleast one entire MRE in their backpack, just in case we can't readily get to the storage bin. Realistically, 1 MRE can last a person a full day. It won't be like being at home and eating three square meals, but you will get enough supplements from it to survive on. Here's how I break it down for 1 MRE per day:

Morning: Crackers and peanut butter/cheese.

Afternoon: Side dish, drink mix, and gum.

Evening: Main meal and dessert (Tootsie Roll, LifeSaver, etc)

The following day, I would make some rice or beans from my dry goods stash so that I wouldn't use up all the good MRE's in the first few days.

If you've noticed, everything I've listed, including the MRE's, requires water. Obviously you can't store and transport 55 gallon drums of water, so you should have atleast 1 or 2 portable water purifiers, some water purifying tablets, and a pot to boil water. You can find water in every eco-system (that will be a later post), no matter how arid the region is. If you are going to use the MRE heaters to warm up your meal, don't waste good potable (drinkable) water on the heater. The fumes from the heater are toxic, so make sure you don't open your meal packet before heating it. This also means you can use unpurified water to activate the heater.

Here's some tips to make your dry foods a little more flavorful. Add some natural vegetation to your rice or beans, like dandelion leaves, pine needles, pine nuts (boil twice before adding) or even some cattails to thicken your meal. If you're not sure what is edible or not, watch the surrounding wildlife and see what they are eating. Also, save the salt and pepper from the MRE (the main meals are pretty good without it) and add it to your beans. The MRE's also come with a small bottle of Tabasco sauce, so you can add that to your Spam or whatever else your taste buds desire.

There are hundreds of options out there on the market for dehydrated foods, survival foods, MRE's, or even dry goods, so which ever one you choose is okay. At this point, it only depends on what you can afford and how much of it you can buy. Just make sure you buy and store enough to feed your family for atleast two weeks. During that two weeks, you should also do whatever you can to obtain more food, whether it's hunting, fishing, or in some cases still buying more. This isn't the answer all for survival food, but it is a good starting point to be prepared to live to see tomorrow.