Replace part of your emergency food supply.

Storing a three-day supply of emergency food is one of the fundamental steps in good emergency preparedness. There are many sources of dried foods with long shelf life. However these are not the foods your family eats day in and day out. Introducing new foods when your family is in the middle of an emergency is not likely a good idea.

What we recommend is that you set aside a supply of the foods you usually eat. Then every six months take some of that emergency food, put it in your regular pantry and replace it. This way you do not spend additional money and you have a supply of foods available that your family is accustomed to eating if you need it for an emergency.

Rotation Cycle

Some foods should be replaced every six months because of a more limited shelf life. Others only need to be replaced once a year. We suggest that you set up three boxes of emergency food supplies.

Box A is of foods that need to be replaced every six months.
Box B is one half of the foods that need to be replaced once a year.
Box C is the other half of the foods that need to be replaced once a year.

In May replace the foods in boxes A & B.
In November replace for the foods in boxes A & C.

Guidelines

Create two shopping lists, one for May the other for November. (Make copies of the following page.) Determine the items and quantities you want for your family. As each of these months come around, simply attach a copy of that shopping list to your regular shopping list. When you are at the supermarket, buy the replacement items on your list. Then take the previously stored food, put it in your current use pantry and put the new purchases in the emergency reserve boxes.

As a rule of thumb, items that are in paper, boxes or plastic wrapping should be stored for only six months. They usually are good for some months longer than that but this gives you time to comfortably use them up in the normal course of preparing your meals.

Those items that are canned in tin cans or bottles can usually be stored for well beyond one year. By storing them for only 12 months and then placing them in the current use pantry, you can use them up just as though you had purchased them for current use.

Place your three boxes of emergency food in a cool place that is low or is certain not to fall in the event of an earthquake.