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Last Updated on August 22, 2024 by Paul Clayton
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How to Create a Prepper Food Pantry
Creating a prepper food pantry is a crucial component of disaster preparedness. It ensures that in an emergency, be it a natural disaster or a global pandemic, you have enough food supplies to sustain you and your family.
- Identify Your Needs: Assess your family’s preferences, allergies, and restrictions.
- Choose the Right Location: Opt for cool, dark, and dry spaces.
- Plan for Variety: Include proteins, grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and fats.
- Consider Shelf Life: Prioritize items with longer shelf lives.
- Rotate Your Stock: Regularly follow the “first in, first out” principle.
- Invest in Emergency Food Supplies: Purchase pre-packaged emergency food with long shelf lives.
Our world can be pretty unpredictable, but if there’s one thing we can always count on, it’s our stomachs growling and hunger emerging sooner than later.
Let’s review the best ways to ensure that our hunger and nutrition needs are met in an emergency survival situation.
Starting a Survival Pantry
So, what goes into converting your pantry into something that could sustain an emergency survival situation? When starting on a prepper journey, it’s always best to set aside some space for your new survival gear.
Whether you declutter a closet, put some shelves up in the garage, or empty out a corner of your basement, the amount of prepping you can do may depend on your storage space.
Luckily, the convenient thing about prepper food is that a lot of it comes in compact cans or bins that are easy to store away.
In other words, minimal storage doesn’t mean prepping is impossible.
However, having a designated spot for all those canned goods and packaged meals is excellent as your survival collection grows.
Once your emergency food pantry is ready to go, it’s time to start hauling! While grocery stores sell tons of long-lasting canned goods and nonperishables, they don’t exactly have emergency food starter kits on Target shelves.
For devoted survivalists, heading to a prepper foods website and purchasing a survival meal starter kit could be an excellent idea.
Emergency food supplies from prepper food companies will have your back whether you’re looking to last 72 hours or several months. Readywise prepper food kits have a 25-year shelf life.
Check out Readywise’s collection of meats, fruits and veggies, milk and eggs, and even water filtration devices.
Readywise isn’t the only brand striving to make survival prep easy and accessible. Nutrient is another emergency food supply with a 25-year shelf life.
Nutrient is the king of survival superfoods, including 14 vitamins and minerals, nine protein amino acids, and six grams of fiber per meal.
With delicious dishes like triple cheese mac, hearty apple cinnamon oatmeal, and a homestyle scramble, suddenly, a zombie apocalypse doesn’t sound so bad (just kidding).
Nutrient Survival is a company that strives to help preppers accommodate all their dietary needs, even in extreme situations. They have everything from family survival kits to a 72-hour pack and various servings to choose from.
All of their meals are made with clean ingredients, non-GMOs, and high-quality calories—no nonsense or unhealthy fillers.
This video has been included to clarify the topic. Credit goes to CNBC Television
Perhaps you want to start small on your stockpile; find a fave and buy it in bulk! This way, your inner survivalist is fulfilled, but you don’t have to worry about finding room for a giant bucket. I’d never get sick of the white bean and lime chili.
Nutrient Survival has tons of prepper food buckets, with soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian options.
Many of these products can be purchased directly through Amazon! If you sense SHTF energy in the air, send food to your door within a few days.
Not to mention, Amazon’s not just great for a prepper food list: it’s one of the best places to find gear and survival garden supplies.
Foods Every Prepper Pantry Needs
Bins full of pre-prepped kinds of pasta and balanced breakfasts are easy to prepare, but what if a boxed emergency food supply isn’t in your current budget? Or maybe you’re just looking to go that extra mile; survivalists know “too prepared” doesn’t exist.
As you browse the grocery store for stockpiled ingredients, what should you look out for? Let’s narrow down what foods will give you the most calories and nutrients while lasting on your shelf.
1. Grains for Preppers
Grains are an essential part of the human diet. While carbs might seem like your worst enemy during a diet, they’ll be your body’s best friend (especially during survival mode).
They include the complex carbohydrates our body needs, several B vitamins, and minerals.
High in nutrients and fiber, grains give you the energy needed to stay healthy under any circumstance.
While your favorite sourdough loaf might accumulate mold after a few days, plenty of grains will last in your survival pantry.
For example, keeping flour good for years to come is simple: seal it in Mylar-like bags with oxygen absorbers. As long as it’s safe from light, moisture, and oxygen, your flour will be ready to use for years to come.
Rice is one thing that rarely goes bad, especially while chilling in the fridge or freezer.
Stock up on a pack whenever it’s on sale, and soon, you’ll have a stockpile of filling and nutritious rice for your emergency pantry. Speaking of grains that never go bad, every food prepper needs some pasta.
It’s no shocker that we see so many pasta dishes in emergency food kits! Pasta can never really go “bad; it just loses quality over time.
It’s another inexpensive ingredient you should always stock up on in stores. With a solid collection of grains, you’ll have the best prepper food.
2. Survival Legumes
When you’re prepping for anything, you’ve got to be stocked up on the most versatile and nutritious foods available. That’s why you need beans and legumes! They contain no cholesterol and are high in folate, potassium, iron, and magnesium.
Additionally, legumes contain beneficial fats and insoluble fiber. Hence, all the southwestern meals and chili mac are in prepper food for kids.
When storing dry beans, please keep them in polyethylene bags for about a year. Like most stored foods, a colder temperature will increase shelf life.
If you want to go the extra mile, keep them in Mylar-type bags or #10 cans with the oxygen removed; they’ll last up to 10 years. They’ll never go bad or expire if stored in proper prepper food.
Another ideal option for certain beans is to purchase them by can. This can make food prep easy, and shelf life is usually still fairly long. Canned goods can last in a cool, dry place for years; look out for signs of damage on the can.
If it’s rusty, dented, or swollen, throw those beans in the garbage. Their high nutrients and long-lasting shelf
life in the can and out, make beans a prepper pantry must-have.
3. Prepper Fats
Consuming fats is essential to any healthy and balanced diet. Fat is a source of essential fatty acids, which the body can’t make alone. It also helps the body absorb vitamins A, D, and E. These vitamins are fat-soluble, meaning they can only be absorbed with the help of fats.
Additionally, fats help to give your body energy, protect your organs, and support cell growth. Focusing too much on cutting fat out of your diet can deprive your body of what it needs most.
We’re not dieting or restricting at Crow Survival, especially in our prepper food supply.
This might come as a shocker, but olive oil is an excellent source of fat in your survival pantry. It’s incredible for cooking, making yummy dressings, and herbal remedy preparations.
Plus, it’ll last a couple of years on your shelf. Another solid option is Crisco, a form of hydrogenated vegetable oil. It has a shelf life of 8-10 years. With just one tablespoon, you’ll consume 12 grams of fat.
You can bake bread or stir-fry meat and veggies from your survival garden.
Another solid source of fat in a survival diet is powdered milk. While grocery store milk seems to go sour within days, its powdery counterpart lasts much longer.
It works well as a coffee creamer, added to cereal, oatmeal, grits, or baked goods like muffins.
Most whole powdered milk has a shelf life of a year or so. However, some prepper brands offer powdered milk that lasts up to 20 years.
Last but certainly not least, we have tasty peanut butter. It’s a high-fat food (19 grams per 2 tablespoons) and can be stored in the pantry for up to two years. Whether you’re cooking up something sweet or salty, add some peanut butter to your daily dose of fat.
4. Meat and Protein for Survivalists
It’s no secret that protein is a vital part of any person’s diet, especially in emergency survival situations.
Proteins comprise chemical building blocks called amino acids, which your body uses to build up and repair muscles and bones, making hormones and enzymes. Additionally, they’re a great energy source.
It would help if you had protein to build and maintain strong bones, muscles, cartilage, and skin.
Canned fish is one of the best protein options for a survivalist pantry. Fish offers heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. Canned light tuna is one of the best protein sources thanks to its low mercury and high protein levels.
Its relatively long shelf life and simple serving process make it an uber-convenient prepper food. Canned salmon is another survivalist favorite.
Eggs are another excellent source of protein. If you’ve been considering living off the land and starting a farm, now might be the time to do it. While farm-fresh eggs each morning are a luxury anyone would love, it’s not feasible for everybody.
So instead, pickle your eggs and keep them in the fridge; they’ll last up to a few months. There’s no better way to add delicious flavor and plenty of protein to your survival
kitchen!
5. Survival Spices
Everyone deserves to be eating mouthwatering and flavorful meals, even in emergency survival situations. That’s why it’s essential to have spices on hand for seasoning your dishes and elevating your cuisine.
Just a bit of spice will transform essential ingredients into a flavorful and aromatic meal.
Sprinkle some on your oatmeal or in a baked good, and voila! You’ve got a delicious and nutritious dish.
Ginger, turmeric, and cumin are other incredible spices to add to your survival pantry. Each of these seasonings can improve health from the inside out.
Is It Necessary to Stockpile Food?
The answer hinges on recognizing the potential for unexpected circumstances to disrupt our regular food access.
A stockpile of food can be a safety net, ensuring access to essential nutrition in scenarios such as natural calamities, pandemics, or power outages.
By storing non-perishable items, households can mitigate the risk of food insecurity during these trying periods.
Therefore, while hoarding excessively is unnecessary, maintaining a reasonable reserve of food supplies is a prudent measure of preparedness.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, understanding how to create a prepper food pantry involves several key steps. First, it’s crucial to identify your needs, considering your family members’ preferences, dietary restrictions, and allergies.
This information will guide your food choices, ensuring everyone in the household can safely consume the stocked items. The next step involves choosing the right location for your pantry.
A cool, dark, and dry space is ideal for preserving the quality and longevity of your supplies.
Variety is also an essential aspect of planning. Your pantry should have a balanced mix of proteins, grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and fats to ensure you can provide nutritious meals.
Equally important is considering the shelf life of the items you stock; prioritize foods with longer shelf lives to ensure minimal wastage. Regularly rotating your stock using the “first in, first out” principle helps maintain freshness and quality.
Lastly, investing in pre-packaged emergency food supplies can supplement your pantry with items designed for long-term storage. This comprehensive approach ensures you’re well-prepared for any eventuality.
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