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Two Week Emergency Preparedness
Food storage author, Vicki Tate, offers the following two week preparedness plan. It includes suggested foods and amounts, alternatives to cooking, and other things to consider.
"Generally, when a person is preparing for a two week to one month period of time, they have in mind situations such as an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, ice storm, or interruption of services due to Y2K. In situations such as these, utilities like electricity, gas and water can be disrupted.
These are high stress times when the people involved don't want to have to spend a great deal of time in meal preparation and often haven't made plans for alternative ways to cook without electricity or gas. The easiest, and definitely the wisest foods to store for periods of times like these are ones that keep relatively well and require only a minimum of cooking and planning. Most of these are easily picked up at your local grocery or camping store. Some quickly prepared foods are also available from many food storage companies.
When a person stores for longer periods of time, they should make sure to acquire the long term storage foods traditionally thought of for food storage.
But everyone may benefit from having on hand at least a two week supply of these types of quick and easy to prepare foods. Below is a list of such items for a two week period for one person."
Breakfast
- 1 lb. box of oatmeal (or #10 can from food storage company)
- 1 box other hot cereal
- 2 lbs. powdered milk (or #10 can from food storage company)
- 1 lb. raisins or other dried fruit
- 2 lbs. pancake or pancake/biscuit mix
- 1 bottle syrup
- 1 jar jam
- 1 jar orange drink or 12 small cans of juice
- 1 container of chocolate milk
- #2 1/2 can (app. 3 cups) dehydrated eggs (available from food storage company)
Lunches and Dinners
- 8 cans of your choice of:
canned soup or packaged soup mix
canned chili
canned refried beans
boxes of macaroni and cheese
cans of beef stew, chow mein, ravioli, spaghetti, etc.
ramen noodles
- 2 lbs. spaghetti or other pasta
- 2 jars spaghetti sauce
- 4-6 cans tuna, salmon, chicken, turkey, or other meat
- 1 lb. dehydrated potatoes or 5 lbs. fresh (these store relatively well if stored in cool spot)
- 1 lb. onion or 1 jar or 1 #2 1/2 can dehydrated
- 14 cans vegetables (or 1 #10 can dehydrated or freeze dried)
- 14 cans fruit (or 1 #10 can dehydrated or freeze dried)
- 1 jar peanut butter
- 1 jar cheese such as cheese whiz (or #2 1/2 can dehydrated)
- 2-3 pkgs. Jello
- 2-3 pkgs. pudding
- 1 pkg. hard candy
Or, buy some MRE's (meals ready to eat, bought from army surplus stores. Go easy on these). Or get some freeze-dried entrees-- just add water and eat. They can be bought at camping stores or from freeze-dried distributors.
Misc.
Recipes available in food storage cook book
- 14 gallons of water, minimum
- 5 lbs. flour (to make tortillas or Indian fry bread. These are quick and easy to make and are good to use in place of bread for sandwiches, burritos, etc.)
- 1 lb. cornmeal (for cereal, cornbread, crackers, etc.)
- 1 lb. rice
- 1 box baking powder
- 1 box baking soda
- #2 1/2 can (app. 3 cups) dehydrated eggs
- 1 32-oz. bottle vegetable oil or 1 can shortening
- 1 lb. salt
- Pepper and other spices
- 1 lb. sugar
- 1 lb. brown sugar
- 1 lb. honey
- 1 jar boullion cubes
If you have a baby, be sure to have formula, baby food, diapers, etc.
Cooking Alternatives
Be ready to do at least a minimal amount of cooking. If your power or gas is off, some alternatives are your barbeque, camping stove, or Dutch oven. To make sure these would be operable for a two week period, you should have on hand an extra 1-2 bottles of propane for gas barbeques, 30-40 lbs. charcoal for Dutch ovens and charcoal barbeques, or 2-3 bottles of butane for camping stoves.
Other Non-Food Items
- Any medications you require
- 1 bottle dish soap
- 1 bar hand soap
- 1 small bottle bleach (for disinfectant)
- 1 box detergent
- 4 rolls toilet paper
- shampoo/lotion/toothpaste
- sanitary napkins
- 2 rolls paper towels
- 1 box trash bags
- 1-2 boxes of matches
- 6 candles
- 1 flashlight/batteries
- 1 radio/batteries
Also consider having:
- Sleeping bag
- Tent
- Winter clothing
- Food for pets
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