Food Storage Made Easy » 72 Hour Kits

72 Hour Kits Revisited: Part 2 of 2

Jodi and Julie — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:26:36 +0000

The winner of a 24 SINGLE-USE PACK of INSTA-FIRE is Melody Rader. A perfect addition to any 72 hour kit for cooking or keeping warm! We will contact you to get you your prize soon. Thanks to everyone who contribute such great ideas for our 2-part series on 72 Hour Kits.

In Part 1 of 72 Hour Kits Revisited, we talked about supplies to have in your 72 Hour kit, along with some great reader tips to think about when building your kits. Today we’re talking about something we all LOVE….FOOD! We’ll also be talking about things to consider for special circumstances or situations like pets, kids, and babies.

We’ve been asked a couple of times for pre-made menus and each time we’ve gone to prepare them, we’ve stopped because we can’t please everyone We decided the best way to help you plan the food for your kits was to do 2 things. The first is to give you a personal meal planner worksheet. The second is to give you a long list of foods people have suggested, then you can fully customize your plan. PLEASE – DON’T GET OVERWHELMED. – THIS POST IS LONG – WE KNOW, WE COMPILED IT! Just use it as a guide and press forward. Here we go:

This worksheet can help you get your thoughts down on paper. Print it out, fill it out with foods your family will eat, then you can place the menu plans in your 72 hour kits. It’s a good idea to place the menu plans in your kits so you don’t forget what you had planned to eat when the time comes.

There are a lot of different ways of eating out there! Some people want healthy, some want no cook meals, some want meals you don’t have to rotate, there’s allergies to consider and ages. We polled our readers and got some ideas. See which category, or categories you fall under and pick foods from there.

REGULAR FOOD OPTIONS:
-Granola bars (vacuum sealing them makes them last longer)
-Chocolate candy/chips
-Dried fruits/dehydrated fruits
-Tuna pouches (already packaged from store)
-Wheat crackers for the tuna
-Raw almonds
-Hot cocoa
-Fruit drink mix
-Raman noodles/cup a noodles
-Jerky (though salty will make you more thirsty)
-Pouches of soup mixes (potatoe, brocoli, chicken noodle) just add water
-Canned: spaghettios, raviolis, tuna, sardines (can be eaten cold) (figure I can put 1 can in each bag to supplement food rations, so nobody has to carry a -bunch of heavy cans (the cans have the pull tops so no need for can-opener – we’ve been told these can explode when you open them, so be careful)
-Peanut butter
-Small jar jellie
-Small container honey
-Banana chips (the potassium in them can help with muscle soreness if your are using muscles helping people in a disaster type situation)
-Protein powder
-Gatorade (you’ll need electrolytes)

MINIMAL ROTATION OPTIONS (MRE’S):
Emergency Food Bars (i.e 3600 calorie bars)
MRE Meals (check out the options at Emergency Essentials and Shelf Reliance)
MRE Meals can last up to 25 years – remember to store water and cooking fuel
-Beef stroganoff
-Spaghetti
-Lasagne
-Chili mac
-Breakfast skillet
-Chicken and rice
-Chicken ala king

“HEALTH’IER” OPTIONS:
-Instant oatmeal (none of those colored frankenmeal ones – just maple, cinnamon, or organic varieties)
-Foodsaver bag of 3 days’ worth of dehydrated apple chips (with an oxygen absorber to extend shelf life)
-Bush’s baked beans, 8 oz. pop top (This is used as a cooking vessel to heat other foods – wash and save this can after use.)
-Pouches of “squeezy fruit” baby food (Plum Organics, Ella’s Kitchen, or Happy Baby – found online, Target, or Babies/Toys R Us)
-Pouches of big kid squeezable applesauce
-Chunk light tuna in water (This fish contains much less mercury than the white or albacore.)
-2-3 foil packets of mayonnaise and relish (to make an impromptu tuna salad)
-Shelton’s Chili (Delicious and additive-free! Two kids can share a can.)
-Cascadian Farms kid size peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars
-Resealable bags of dried fruit or large raisin boxes
-Yummy Earth lollipops and/or a small bag of Surf Sweets gummies
-Lunchbox size packs of crackers such as Late July
-Laughing Cow cheese wedges (They do not require refrigeration.)
-Reverse osmosis filtered water, each with a small rock of Himalayan pink salt added in order to re-mineralize the water.
-Crystal Light Pure (sweetened with stevia and sugar, all natural flavors and colors)
-Packet of Emergen-C

GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS:
-Larabars
-Lundberg Rice Cakes
-GF Granola (like Bakery on Main)
-Beef Jerky
-Can of Chicken or Tuna
-Mary’s Gone Crackers
-Dinty Moore Beef Stew
-Hormel Chili
-Applesauce
-Canned Fruit
-Fruit Leather
-Fruit Roll-up or Fruit Snacks
-Raisins
-Boxes of Pacific Almond Milk
-Peanut or other Nut Butter
-Honey

VEGAN OPTIONS:
-Prepackaged precooked meals (like the indian dishes that can be found in mylar bags in the ethnic foods aisle at the grocery)
-Cliff bars
-Lara bars
-Nut bars
-Vitamin B12 tablet
-Bar of vegan dark chocolate
-Peanut butter
-Nuts packaged in food saver bags
-Seeds packaged in food saver bags

NO COOK OPTIONS:
-Cereal bars
-Crackers
-Peanut butter
-Pudding cups
-Fruit cups
-Fruit roll-ups
-Cans of vegetables
-Pork and beans (can eat cold)
-Granola bars (vacuum sealing them makes them last longer)
-Chocolate candy/chips
-Dried fruits/dehydrated fruits
-Almonds

KID FRIENDLY FOODS:
-Tuna pouch
-Chicken pouch
-Canned peas, carrots
-Crackers
-Crasins, & other dried fruit
-Fruit snacks or other candy treat type things
-Cheerios in vac sealed bag
-Canned fruit (mixed, pears, peaches, apple sauce)
-Bottle & Single serving milk packets
-Granola bars
-Hormel complete meals – chicken & rice or turkey & mashed potatoes

CONSIDERATIONS FOR BABIES
-Instant formula
-Plenty of diapers or cloth diapers
-A travel package of wipes
-Pacifiers
-3 cotton/flannel wraps, and 2 muslin wraps.
-Baby food
-Washcloths
-Small comfort toy/s.
-Clothes – and plenty of them!
-Ziplock bags. These work great for storing used diapers or anything else that is dirty, or clean for that matter.
-Bulb nose syringe and saline
-Infant tylenol/motrin.
-Desatin or other diaper rash cream and travel-sized baby powder
-For detailed information on these items- visit this post

KID KITS: ITEMS
-Small Backpack or Bag
-Paper, Coloring Book
-Crayons, Pencils
-Travel Games- Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Checkers
-File Folder games
-Crossword book, Sudoku book
-Card games- Go Fish, Old Maid, UNO
-Books

CAT KIT (alter for other pets):
-1 gallon of water
-1 plastic gallon jug filled with dry food
-1 12 pack box of wet food packets
-1 small bag of treats
-Small litterbox
-Litter scoop
-Plastic gallon jug filled with kitty litter
-Small plastic trash bags for scooped waste disposal
-Towel
-Mini pet first aid kit
-Vaccination/vet records
-Color photo of cat
-Extra collar w/contact info
-Leash and harness

COOKING SUPPLIES
- Plastic utensils
- Paper plates
- Small cup
- Tin can for cooking
- Matches
- Can Opener (if needed)
- Fire starter packets
- Wing tip stove and fuel pellets
- Stove in a Can
- Backpacking Stoves
- Sterno canned heat

We posted this in Part 1 for people who want to buy Pre-Made kits. You may chose to do a combination of putting together things you already have and buying things you don’t already have, or doing a custom purchase kit.

Emergency Essentials

Everything from a basic one person kit to a deluxe kit for the whole family.

Shelf Reliance

Create a completely custom emergency kit for your family using their Emergency Planner.

72 Hour Kits Revisited: Part 1 of 2

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 06:01:16 +0000

Today we’re sharing ideas about making your own 72 hour kits, and then some options for purchasing them at the end of the post. 72 hour kits are useful for the first 72 hours following some type of emergency/natural disaster. Often times they are used in scenarios where you have to evacuate your home. If you could stick around your home, I’d hope you have more then 3 days worth of food- but that’s another story.

72 hour kits typically contain supplies for dealing with disasters along with food and water. Today we’re sharing a list of supplies and some great tips we got from reader submissions. Thursday we will be sharing food ideas, along with a planning guide you can use to customize the food in your kits to your families needs and tastes. Please note, we also recommend having your important documents gathered in either an emergency binder, or safe.

Here is a list of non-food supplies. This list is on our disaster kit’s page. You might want to take a closer look at that, but know that we’ll be updating it along with the food part of it after this week. The items in black are the items we currently have on the page. The items in red are new items we gathered from reader submissions.

□ supply of water (one gallon per person per day)
□ first aid kit and prescription medications
□ extra pair of glasses , or contact solution
□ credit cards and cash
□ change of clothes and sturdy shoes
□ battery powered radio, and extra batteries
□ blankets or sleeping bags, rain poncho, body warmer, glow stick, tarp to make a tent
□ list of emergency plan contact info
□ booster cables for car, car shovel, rope, N95 dust mask, working gloves
□ flashlight with batteries , or hand-crank flashlight
□ wind/waterproof matches, and candle, plastic trash bags
□ personal hygiene products (baby stuff, soap, tooth care, toilet paper, hair ties, wet wipes)
□ games, books, hard candy, toys
□ tire repair kit and pump, duct tape, swiss army knife, and over the counter medications, maps of surrounding areas, sewing kit, blank CD for SOS or signaling for help, whistle, multipurpose tool (screwdriver, knife, saw, pliers, can opener etc), PowerCap (baseball type hat with built in headlights)
*more about pets on Thursday

The following are some tips we thought were worth sharing, but couldn’t really put them in a list since they are more ideas about how to purchase, store, or accumulate your supplies. Read them – and thank you to our readers for sharing them.

PURCHASING: After you’ve come up with everything you still need to buy for your kit, break it up into a purchasing schedule. Purchase just 1 or 2 things each week for however many weeks it takes you. The point is you’ll be making progress, even if you can’t buy it all at once.

GRAB LIST(S): Instead of having just one grab list (things you would grab if you have to evacuate) have multiple lists- one for each family member. Tape those lists up on the inside of your front closet door. When it comes time to evacuate, anyone who is old enough can get their list and hurry. This will save time deciding who is going to grab what.

INDIVIDUAL KITS: For anyone old enough, make them their own kit. Have food, water, and clothes in each kit so in case of separation everyone will have their own stuff. Divvy up the remaining supplies among all the kits. Put the heavier stuff in the stronger member’s kits. Use backpacks, or rolling bags that are easy to transport. Lugging around big rubbermaid bins is HARD.

TRIAL SIZE TOILETRIES: There are sample sizes of shampoos, toothpastes, deodorants etc you can purchase for the kits. They are in the regular personal hygiene aisles at the store. No need to lug around big containers of those things. Another idea is to save the samples you get at hotels and put those in your kits. They always get thrown away anyways if you only use a small portion!

THRIFT STORE CLOTHING: It can be inconvenient and kind of wasteful to store regular usable clothes in your kits that stay stored in a closet while children outgrow them. Consider purchasing outfits at a thrift store for you kits. That way you wont have to feel bad about not using whole outfits while they still fit.

COLD WEATHER BAG: There are a lot of items you might want in your 72 hour kit if it were cold- but you wouldn’t want if it were warmer weather. Store all the stuff you would need in colder weather in a separate bag or container that you would grab and go in case of emergency during the winter. If it happened to be warmer, you could just leave it behind.

PUT FRESH FOOD ON GRAB LIST: If time, circumstance, and space allow – grab any fresh food you may have and throw it in a cooler on your way out (if you are leaving in a car). You may really appreciate fresh produce in the first 24-72 hours of a crisis.

DIAPER BAGS PACKED: This goes for evacuations or everyday emergencies. Do your best to ALWAYS have your diaper bags packed with extra food, clothes, and diapers. If you’re in the habit of doing this all the time it could really save you in a REAL emergency (like those don’t happen daily with babies on the go).

IDEAS FOR ROTATION: Depending on how often your kit needs rotating (the foods you chose will dictate this), make it a habit to change them out at the same time each year. Whether it be Halloween (where you use some of the extra candy as comfort food), Spring cleaning week, April Fools Day (we did that last year so we wouldn’t be fools- we know it was corny) or any other time of year, get in the habit of rotating them.

COMMUNICATION: If in case you are evacuating and you expect your house to be in tact when you return, it’s wise to maybe leave a note about your where-abouts on a door. That way when people come looking to see if you are safe – they will know you are elsewhere.

Emergency Essentials

Everything from a basic one person kit to a deluxe kit for the whole family.

Shelf Reliance

Create a completely custom emergency kit for your family using their Emergency Planner.

72 HOUR KIT IDEAS – CALL FOR HELP! (and a giveaway)

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:25:11 +0000

We had no idea the earthquake in Japan would strike when we scheduled to do this post a couple weeks ago. We are very humbled and saddened by the events that are happening over there -and also recently in New Zealand. We send our love and prayers to all those who have been affected by the recent earthquakes and storms.

Having said that – it’s time to get to work everyone. When we first started the blog, we made our Emergency Preparedness plans and lists. We suggested making a grab list of items you want to get, and Emergency Binders where you store all your important documents that you could grab in case of and emergency and go. We made a72-hour food kit whose contents could all fit in a milk jug. The food, along with a list of supplies made up our disaster kits. We have been wanting to improve upon the 72 hour food kit for a long time. Last year we made a file of more ideas for foods, but we want to offer even more ideas for people with different dietary needs, and preferences.

When facing topics like this we know who our best resource is…

We know a lot of you have faced actual emergencies, have been around longer then us, and have great ideas when it comes to 72 hour kits. We are asking you to submit your FOOD CONTENTS LISTS. The more detailed you can be the better!

These are the categories we’re hoping to fill, please indicate which categories your kit falls under. We actually get asked pretty often for adaptations. If you have a category we haven’t thought of – please send along your ideas. We’ll gather all the data and compile it into usable handouts and blog posts for everyone to SHARE!

72 Hour Kit With Cookable Items
72 Hour Kit that Requires No Cooking
72 Hour Kit Gluten Free
72 Hour Kit that Requires Little Rotation
72 Hour Kit Healthy Options
72 Hour Kit Kid Friendly

Since we know how easy it is to get distracted and forget to do things we had every intention on doing, we’ll give you a little incentive to share your kit ideas. How about we say to everyone who emails us with a list of what’s in their kits – we enter your name into a drawing to win a 24 single use pack of Insta-Fire. How perfect would Insta-Fire be in a 72 hour kit?!?! Email your list to info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net BY MONDAY MARCH 21ST to qualify!

Valentine’s Day and Food Storage?

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:01:20 +0000

We made this post last year- but figured it’s still appropriate since it’s almost Valentines Day again and a lot of our readers have never seen this… If you made this last year remember to restock any foods (if your spouse hasn’t already sneaked them and ate them already). If you haven’t seen this before, then here you go….

Are you having a hard time deciding what to get your “special someone” for Valentines Day? Well worry no more. We have made it easy for you – and what’s better then the gift of preparedness? Send your loved one to work with a special 72 Hour Kit for the Office. We even made a contents list and cute little tag for you to attach to the container you gather the contents in.

For the tag – that reads “Because I always want you to be safe” and contents list, click here. As always, you may customize this list to meet your specific needs and don’t worry if you can’t get all the items at once. Put a few of the items in, and keep giving them extra “parts” as special surprises through out the year.

IN THE KIT (buy trial size if you can)
- food (protein bars, granola bars, beef jerky, candy, fruit roll ups)
- toothbrush/toothpaste
- washcloth/facewash/bodywash
- shampoo/conditioner
- razor/shaving cream/deodorant
- change of socks/underwear
- kleenex/wet wipes
- hand sanitizer
- travel-size first aid kit including small bottle of Tylenol
- work gloves
- rain poncho
- space blanket
- small flashlight with spare batteries
- a whistle (to draw the attention of rescue workers)
- carbon-filtering dust mask (for smoke, dust, debris, etc.)
- small novel
- small radio with spare batteries
- cash (small bills for vending machines)
- contents list

WITH THE KIT
- crow bar
- water

To print the tag and contents list, click here, or click on either of the images. Good luck and Happy Valentines Day!

Food Storage Makeover: Disaster Kits Part Two

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:18:30 +0000

Today is the DAY! We got Grandma Lori’s disaster kits all purchased and compiled and she is very excited with the results. We started out this phase of our Food Storage Makeover by discussing the three different options available for disaster kits. After some discussion, we found a solution that worked well for Grandma Lori. Check out our video below to see our discussion and the final results!

We have had a lot of people ask us about options for buying kits that are already put together. We got the one in the video from Emergency Essentials who has a huge selection of different kits you can purchase depending on your family’s needs. We will be doing a post later this month discussing some of the different options. (*hint* There just MAY be a giveaway associated with that post!)

Day 1: Food Storage Christmas (eprep)

Jodi and Julie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:00:26 +0000

The best way to start a Food Storage, is with Emergency Preparedness. In fact, it’s one of the most popular reasons why people decide to get going on a Food Storage in the first place. Help someone start out their journey right- with some of the following ideas:

Options that are Free or Under $1

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Print out our Emergency Preparedness plan that has detailed checklists to help a family make their family plan, build a disasters kit – including a 72 hour kit, and put together an evacuations list and car kit. Roll up the pages, tie it up with a cute ribbon and attach the Day 1 tag.

An Option that is $5-$20

Car Kit or 72 Hour Kit

Make, or purchase a pre-made Car Kit, or 72 Hour Kit. These can be found at stores, or online. Consider even just putting together a little first aid kit for someone’s car. Don’t forget to attach the Day 1 tag to your kit!

Quick Stove

Perfect for your 72 hour kit, give a Quick Stove. This self contained stove is ready to use at any time. Food Storage Made Easy readers get 50% off by using JODI&JULIE as their referral code.

Insta Fire/span>

Perfect for a72 hour kit, give a set of Insta Fire Individual Packs. These come in a set of 24, so you can give them all to one person, or give them as stocking stuffers.

A More Expensive Option

Volcano Grill

A great emergency preparedness product is the Volcano Grill. They are fantastic for powerless emergency situations, and fun for any outdoorsy person to use for camping, backyard grilling, etc.

Back to the 12 Days List

Added Emergency Preparedness Pages

Jodi and Julie — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:47:15 +0000

As we promised on Tuesday, we have now added three sub-pages to the new Emergency Preparedness tab. To check them out, simply click on “Emerg Prep” at the top of our site. Then click on each of these three icons to learn more about each area of emergency preparedness that is covered in our comprehensive Emergency Preparedness Plan.

Don’t forget that all of this information can be found in our Emergency Preparedness Plan Workbook which contains simple checklists to help you develop your family’s emergency plan (download in excel format or pdf format).

More 72 Hour Kit Food Ideas

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:01:04 +0000

One of the first things we teach you when you are getting started with your food storage is to get an Emergency Preparedness Plan in place. This includes having a Disaster Kit containing 72 Hour Food Kits for every member of your family.

In our Getting Started section we have given a great example of how to make a 72 Hour Food Kit using a milk jug. We have always encouraged people to modify this kit to suit the needs of their own family and situation, but people have written asking us for more help with that. So we have come up with a few options which will hopefully be helpful for everyone. Pick the option that works best for you!

Detailed Instructions:

If you want it laid out for you step by step including a shopping list and contents list for one particular example of a 72 Hour Kit, follow our 72 Hour Kit milk jug instructions.

Create Your Own:

If you want to have more flexibility over your meal options, you can customize your kit using our new 72 Hour Kit Food Ideas worksheet. Follow the instructions and pick and choose what foods work best for your family.

Already Made:

For those of you who want the convenience of having a kit ready-made for you, we have been exploring some different options such as this 1 Person Safety Kit. We will be giving a more thorough review of these options in a future post so stay tuned!

If you have any additional items to suggest that work well for you please email them to us at info@foodstoragemadeeasy.net and we will compile them into an even more robust worksheet that we will incorporate into our Emergency Preparedness Plan and our Food Storage Made Easy Binder in the future.

Water and 72 Hour Kit Reminders

Jodi and Julie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:30:06 +0000

This is a friendly reminder from Food Storage Made Easy to take care of some of your “maintenance items” this weekend. If you are a member of the LDS Church we like to recommend that you take care of these things on conference weekend since it is a consistent event every six months. If you are not LDS, never fear, we will make sure to do a blog post around this time every six months as well. So make sure you are subscribed to our RSS feeds so you don’t miss a single post!

Step 2: Water

Empty out your water jugs, check for leaks or cracks
Refill the jugs with fresh water and add bleach if your water is not chlorinated
Purchase a new bottle of bleach for emergency purification if your current bottle is expired

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Change out the perishable food items from your 72 Hour Kit
Update seasonal or outgrown clothing in Disaster Kits for young children
Remind your family of your Family Emergency Plan

In case you missed the infamous 72 hour outtakes video

72 Hour/Disaster Kits for Babies/Toddlers

Jodi and Julie — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:33:26 +0000

Due to popular demand, we have put together a comprehensive list of things you may want to consider including in your disaster kit if you have babies or toddlers at home. Remember these are only guidelines, and you should customize everything to suit the needs of your own family. Hopefully we will be able to get these ideas incorporated into our Emergency Preparedness Plan eventually so it’s all in one place!

If you have an infant or a toddler at home, consider including these items as you put together your disaster and 72 hour kits for your family:

Instant formula. Make sure to buy the kind you do not need to mix with water. Also, track expiration dates and rotate through them frequently.
5 small bottles for the formula. You can fill them with purified water to provide extra drinking water in your kit.
Refrigerated bottle bag. This is helpful in case you get the chance to warm up or cool down the formula you can keep it at that temperature for around 4 hours.
Plenty of diapers. The exact number needed depends on the age of your child. I recommend including about 20 disposables and also 3 cloth ones that can be washed, dried and reused in case you run out.
A travel package of wipes. These are great for washing as well. If you have space I’d recommend just storing a full box of wet wipes.
Pacifiers. Put in two just in case. If you’re stressed the baby will probably be stressed and it’s a comfort for them.
3 cotton/flannel wraps, and 2 muslin wraps.
Baby food. Depending on the age of your child you will probably want to include some jars of baby food. Once your baby can eat mostly regular foods just pop these out of your kit.
Washcloths. Stored around 10 small ones, it’s an eventuality, you’ll require them at some point.
Small comfort toy/s. If you child has a specific toy or blanket that he/she really loves, try to grab that in an emergency. But if you can’t, then try to have a usable substitute that will help comfort the child in lieu of their favorite item.
Clothes – and plenty of them! This is a tough one as babies grow so fast. One trick I recommend is that as you swap out their closets to put in the next size of clothes to remember to do that in the disaster kit at the same time. Make sure to include clothes for all types of weather and include lots of spares.
Ziplock bags. These work great for storing used diapers or anything else that is dirty, or clean for that matter.
Bulb nose syringe and saline. Saline loosens mucous and syringe sucks water/mucous/misc out of ears, nose, mouth etc. You never know if you’ll need one so it’s great to keep in your kit.
Infant tylenol/motrin. It never fails that kids get sick as soon as you are somewhere WITHOUT your medicine. So this is a definite requirement for any child disaster kit.
Desatin or other diaper rash cream and travel-sized baby powder. The last thing you’d want in an emergency situation is a sore bum and nothing to treat it with. This will be especially useful if you have to resort to using cloth diapers.

The most important thing to remember is to always be thinking about what is appropriate for your child’s age and stage of development. For example, if your child is no longer drinking bottles then there is no reason to keep formula in your disaster kit.