Welcome!
Welcome to week #3 in the “72 Hour Kit Ideas: A week by week approach” series.
This series is all about making it simple and do-able to get a 72 hour kit put together for you and your family.
Creating such a kit can be overwhelming and financially difficult to do all at once. But through this series, I’ve broken it down for you into 26 small steps! You can see all the steps here. Just take one small baby step each week and in 6 months you will have a well stocked, personalized kit!
You can even go through the series a few times over a year or two adding just the most basic supplies the first six months and then a few more “extra” supplies each time you cycle through it again.
Want even more help?
This series is also available as an e-book. Purchasing the e-book gives you a few additional benefits over just reading the free series:
- Additional details and tips
- The ability to print the entire book!
- Pictures of my own kit showing just how I pack each week.
Download “Your Own 72 Hour Kit Plan” E-Book Now!
Last Week:
I hope all of you were able to add something to help you purify water to your kit last week. Water is absolutely essential to life. You will not survive 3 days without water.
| Photo Credit: o5com |
Week #4: Food
You could survive without food for 3 days, but it wouldn’t be smart or comfortable! You will have headaches, and experience serious fatigue and dizziness as your blood sugar levels are depleted. You will likely be irritable and mentally fatigued. That is not the condition you want to be in following some sort of disaster. You will need all the physical and mental resources you can muster. Plan to have plenty of food (calories) in your 72 hour kit.
In addition to high in calories, you will want your food to be lightweight, nutritious, appetizing, familiar, and easy to prepare.
This week, plan what food you will put in your family’s 72 hour kit. Don’t worry about buying it yet, you will do that next week! Just decide what you will include and where you will buy it; that is a big enough project for one week! Amazon is a good option as is Costco, especially if you will be going in with another family or two!
Ideas / Options:
Consider the following as you decide which will work best for your family. I will mention a few things to avoid as well as give some suggestions of what you might want to include.
What to Avoid:
- Pop-top cans (soups etc.): They can pop open rather easily and create quite a mess in your bag.
- Jolly Ranchers: They melt! Once they’ve melted they are difficult to eat.
- Mint Gum: If kept with your other food, it makes everything taste like mint (You could keep it elsewhere if this is a good comfort food for you).
- Nuts: Because of the high fat content, they go rancid rather quickly. If you are really good at rotating them every 6 months, they should be fine, but if you know you tend to rotate less often, you may want to avoid them.
- Crackers: These are great options unless they are in a position where they are easily crushed/ smashed. Then, they become difficult to eat. If you do use them, put them inside an older Pringles tube (or similar).
- Fruit / Applesauce cups: They don’t stay sealed very well, which can result in a big mess all over your kit. Pouches are a better option.
- Canned Goods: This is just personal preference, but they are heavy and bulky. They don’t taste great cold. If you do choose to include them, you will also need a can opener.
- MRE’s: Prone to exploding and very unfamiliar….they just don’t taste great!
Suggestions / Ideas:
- Dehydrated / freeze dried fruit (VERY lightweight. Freeze dried = same nutrition as fresh).
- Fruit leather / fruit roll ups.
- Canned fruit (include a can opener).
- Squeezable fruit Pouches.
- Squeezable applesauce.
- Instant oatmeal packets (you will need water and a heat source to eat these).
- Instant milk (Milk is a HUGE comfort food for my kids and this tastes just like fresh).
- Dry cereal (like cheerios) in a vacuum sealed bag.
- Fruit drink mixes (These are vitamin fortified and will provide needed electrolytes).
- Hot cocoa.
- Shelf stable almond or rice milk.
- Cans of juice (single serving).
- Crackers with a small jar (non glass) of jelly or honey. Put crackers inside an old Pringles tube (or similar) with a knife all ready to spread peanut butter!
- Trail Mix (Be careful of the shelf life on the nuts…make sure you rotate them regularly or vacuum pack them).
- Rice cakes.
- Granola.
- Granola bars / Nutri-grain Bars.
- Quaker breakfast bars, cookies etc.
- Annies Bunnies.
- Raisins / Craisins.
- Yogurt raisins.
- Jif Peanut Butter To-Go.
- Animal crackers.
- Slim Jims.
- Beef jerky.
- Fig Newtons.
- Goldfish.
- Starkist Lunch To-Go (Tuna with crackers).
- Nuts (Be careful of the shelf life on the nuts…make sure you rotate them regularly or vacuum pack them).
- Thrive Express! (Just add water meals that taste great! You will need to make sure you have water and a heat source to eat them).
- Laughing Cow cheese wedges (no refrigeration required).
- Canned ravioli / Spaghettios.
- Canned beans / chili / stew.
- Canned chicken / tuna + mayo / relish packets.
- Dried soup mixes (You will need to make sure you have water and a heat source to eat them. These can be purchased in a larger size and then re-packed with a vacuum seal into smaller more manageable sizes).
- Raman Noodles / Cup of Noodles.
- MRE’s (Usually come with their own heater and require no separate water / heat source. Relatively long (5 yr) shelf life. Are prone to explode. Don’t taste great).
- Shelf stable sausage sticks (like Hickory Farms. MUST rotate).
- Hormel Completes (or similar).
What we have done in our family
My Goals
- I really wanted food that was high in calories.
- I did not want food that required cooking or using any dishes. I figure if I’m using my kit, I won’t need the extra stress of cooking with a mini stove and doing dishes. I also didn’t want the extra weight of carrying a stove, pots, pans, plates, utensils.
- I wanted the food to be lightweight and,
- Full of things my kids enjoy eating.
I included instant milk because it is a HUGE comfort food for my kids. I also included peach drink mix because it is PACKED with vitamins and I wanted as much nutrition as possible.
I spent about $1.90 per meal and got over 2250 calories per person per day.
We rotate through this food every 6 months. It is a fun tradition. Every 6 months, the leaders of our religion speak to church membership worldwide via satellite. We snack on this food while we listen to them!
You can find more details about our food kits, including where I bought everything here: An Ideal 72 Hour Food Kit
How about you?
Leave me a comment and tell me how you’ve decided to add food to your kit. What are you adding? Why? What will you be doing this week?
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| Week #2: Making Water Safe | Week #4: Purchase & Organize Food | Week #1: Water to Carry | Series Into: 72 Hour Kit Series, A Week by week approach |
Becky is a wildlife enthusiast and pet and livestock care expert with a diploma in canine nutrition. With over a decade of experience in animal welfare, Becky lends her expertise to Simple Family Preparedness through insightful info about pets, livestock, bee keeping, and the practicalities of homesteading.
I’m going to add some thrive fruit pouches to my Q so I can put them in our packs.
They are great Sheena!
My mother gave me a dehydrator this week. She somehow had two and decided to give me the other one. Although I like the freeze dried option better for now as I bring in the crops from my new garden I’m going to try and make my own fruit leather and veggie leathers. And when the kids do their school fundraiser I’m going to buy the cracker keepers for each of our bags.
I love fruit leathers Jennifer. Great use of a dehydrator!
I just finished putting my kits together last month so I don’t have anything I need to add at this point but I haven’t been doing the financial reserve so I will be adding the cash to our kit this week!
I will be adding Jerky, Ramen Noodles, Home made MRE’s, drink mixes, raisins and other dried fruits(Dollar Tree has dried pineapple and more) Ins5ant coffee, tea bags, Condoments in individual packets, pouches of tuna, crackers, hard candy, instant rice & spices.
I view food as one of the few ways that I will be able to comfort my family in a time of crisis, so it is important to me to pack foods that are tasty and familiar. But I have to have meal plans for each person for each day so I don’t OVER-pack.
My 2 year old eats scrambled eggs with ketchup every morning, so breakfast in our kits includes dried egg powder (I’ll be ordering the SR scrambled egg mix soon!) and the little ketchup packets you can get at fast food restaurants (took my husband a few trips to Wendy’s for lunch to collect them all…). We also have applesauce pouches and oatmeal.
My son loves pop tarts for lunch, so our kits include pop tarts and applesauce pouches. My husband and I also have the tuna/chicken packets.
For snacks I’ve packed a variety of fruit snacks, crackers, and dry cereal. I also included individual drink mixes that can be added to 16.9oz water bottles.
We just went through our packs to put clothing into dry sacks and in so doing I also checked and rotated food. We each have three freeze dried meals for dinners. We also have three Cliff bars (less mess than granola bars and more filling). I haven’t really packed much in the way of lunches. I did just recently purchase some of those single packages of mashed potatoes that just need hot water. They come in several different flavors. I opted for the “Loaded Potato” flavor. I may be putting those in some of our packs (not everyone likes them). We also put a beef stick in each of the children’s packs. I need to get some snacks in them also. I am thinking freeze dried fruit in individual packs, even if they get smashed, they will taste good.
Great article. So far, I started with some freeze dried foods, but this article has me thinking about broadening my supply with other varieties of food. Thanks for the suggestions in the article.
Husband is ex military so MRE’s were an easy first fix. As these expire and we use them at hunt camp I plan to rotate in other meals we have used for camping trips, lunches out in the boat while fishing, on road trips in the car and things I know we have eaten and would eat without a problem. Breakfasts: instant oatmeal/dried fruit, instant grits with dried bacon bits, powdered eggs with bacon bits, instant apple cider, cocoa, coffee, or drink mixes. Also love dry cereals we can eat wet or dry, apple jacks, cocoa puffs, mini wheat, captain crunch, chex of any kind. I like the single serve shelf stable milk for cereal when possible but have pouches of dry milk as back up. Fruit roll ups, granola or protein bars and Hubby likes jerky anytime. Lunches, I love peanut butter with high calorie crackers, hubby won’t eat it so he goes for foil pouches of spam or tuna with crackers. We both like any ramin and can eat it dry when water and heat not available. I like the foil chicken salad instead of tuna and will only eat spam if needed. We both love dates, raisins, banana chips and dried apple rings. I also carry and rotate out trail mix and nuts in vacuum sealed packs I make up.
Thanks for all the good ideas and suggestions you post! I have been so focused on building our long term food storage I have completely neglected to prepare a 72 hr bug out kit, so need to start rounding up items and your list of suggestions of what to (and not to) pack is very helpful. Thrive Express looks like it would be a great solution for bug out bags and lightweight meals for camping or hiking excursions, too.
Right now I have some emergency rations in my kit- “enough” for three days. I also have dried fruit that gets rotated every time I dry more. I’m planing to add tuna pouches soon, along with a few backpacking style dehydrated meals.
The dogs and cat also have 4 days of food packed, each serving in individual zip baggies. I am careful to rotate that- kibble doesn’t have a very long shelf life.
I’ve already added some things-hot cocoa, granola bars, fruit rollups and little jif to go peanut butters. I’ve got to add crackers, ramen noodles and oatmeal this week. Hope I win and maybe I’ll be adding some dehydrated food also!
For breakfast, I have instant coffee w/ sugar and creamer packets for the grown ups and hot cocoa packets for the kidlets and oatmeal packs for everyone. For lunch I have Ramen noodles and chicken pouches for protein. For dinner I have Thrive Express meals. I also have dried fruit and granola bars for snacking. One thing I did is create a 3 day spreadsheet for each meal. This will ensure we portion our food/drink rations appropriately so we don’t run out. It also have expiration dates so I know when to rotate items in the packs without digging them out. I have all food divided up by meals in each pack in case we get separated. I want to add a can opener to our pack. We don’t have any canned food in our packs, but would like to be prepared if we buy or barter some.
I’ll be checking my list of expiration dates to see what needs to be rotated. We’ve got almonds, oatmeal, crackers, peanut butter, ramen, and Poptarts in an old oatmeal container in our pack. For drinks, we have a couple packets of hot cocoa and tea.
I got a head start on this last week! I ran across some of those high-calorie “Clif” bars on sale at my grocery store and stocked up on a bunch for the family. We’ve also got a pantry full of canned and dried goods — the bulk dried good section at our local coop has been kind to us lately. I’ll make sure to actually set some in the kit this week.
Don’t just throw the MREs away. Open them up and take out the heater and accessory pack. The accessory pack has toilet paper, matches, salt, sugar, and other items. Heater can be used to heat other items.
We’ve got a lot of tuna/salmon packages in our packs, I’ve also got some crackers (I love the pringles can idea!) and we have a lot of freeze dried fruits. I’m adding in packaged soups and potatoes…it would be nice to have some comfort foods if we have to go.
Comfort foods are very important Katie!
I need to upgrade and rotate food out of our kits. We use a lot of what you mentioned plus beef jerky.
I love beef jerky!
I am SOOO glad I stumbled on to these posts. I have been researching bug-out bags for awhile, and truthfully I got so overwhelmed that I froze (and stopped altogether)! Our family has been storing food for some time now, and the next steps were to assemble bags for everyone. Thank goodness for your simple and timely posts; I think I can manage it now. I haven’t anything to add because I haven’t started yet. But I have been dehydrating fruit and veggies all summer, so I am sure they will play a part.
I’m glad it is helpful Pak! It doesn’t have to be so overwhelming!
Dehydrated fruits of the summer, for us. Beans, peppers, potatoes, fruit, you name it. We had a productive garden over the summer, and dried and sealed, it’s fantastic (and can be replenished each year!)
Love garden produce!
Because I have an ultra-light camp kit (stove, fuel and cookware), I’m not limited to cold foods. My pack now contains peanut butter, pasta, dried potatoes, salmon pouches, condiment packets, oatmeal, soy sauce (replacing sodium is important), coffee & filters, peanut brittle, and chocolate, and a bag of mixed dried fruit. I have refrigerated pouch ready to grab that contains homemade granola, hard salami and hard cheese. I would also add some fresh fruit and veggies that can handle no refrigeration well, like carrots, grapes, and apples. I don’t carry crackers (never had any luck keeping them whole). I just eat the peanut butter on the carrots. Don’t forget those individual salt and peppers you can pick up at fast food joints. They can save an otherwise blah meal. A lot of people who backpack shoot for 150 cal./oz, but I think those foods are too fatty for trips over 72 hours. Also, if time allows, a heavy meal with lots of water before you set off will extend the food in your pack by as much as a day.
Thanks for the tips Daktari!
I want to learn to can- it;s on my short term bucket list. I’ve added some more freeze dried foods to my storage.
I need to learn to can too!
I’m starting from the beginning this week so I’ll be looking for backpacks for each of my family members so we can start packing our 72 hour kits. Thanks so much for this series.
You are welcome Michelle!
We have oatmeal and peanut butter, and tuna, also I grab any packets of condements when we go to a fast food place and keep them with our camping stuff. Never thought of crackers in a pringles can. We also have plenty of cans of food if we had to take carry some until we can afford freeze dried. We have another bag set aside to pack it in if we had to. We don’t have it in our packs, just easily accessible. We do have cheap can opener in our packs though so we don’t forget to grab one. We also have some instant milk from kroger but it was aweful. I would not recommend it from the grocery store. It tasted sour. We will be getting it here next spring when we start camping again.
You have a lot Christina! Way to go!
I am brand new at this and have a backpack in my car that has all my supplies in it and a few small things of food, but next to it is my bag of food that has more than the three day supply of food. One tip I have is a jar of shelf-stable fat (I have coconut oil), because if you are in the wild and are having to survive with what you have, fat is the going to be the hardest thing to find out in the wild and it is absolutely essential. I also have a couple bags of pork rinds to provide easy fat and calories if necessary. But then I also have the typical canned goods, dehydrated meals, dried fruit and granola and oatmeal, spam, etc.
I first want to thank you for your blog, your help, and your encouragement. I live in Colorado, and floods may not be common, but blizzards, wildfires,and tornadoes are. The food in our 72 hour kit has really given me peace of mind. I like how you break things down, so it is not overwhelming. Everyone has bills, and concerns and worries, but doing something each week seems to help lessen the worry. thanks for helping me be proactive, and not watch what others do, but do something myself,and feel like I can give somebody else some great ideas with where to get started. Thanks!-Kelly T.
You are so welcome Kelly! Thanks for taking the time to leave such a kind comment!