Posted: 7/22/2009 2:10:48 PM EDT
...a family of 4:
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Too vague of info.
What ages are the ppl involved. Obviously adults eat more than kids, big ppl eat more than smaller ppl, etc. What kind of area are you in? hot climate, cold climate, ppl tend to eat less in hot climate and more in cold. What kind of work/activities do you anticipate, gardening, building stuff, etc etc. What scenerio are you talking about as well. Minor SHTF, long term, natural disasters, etc If its temporary scenerio than rationing isnt necessary, if its TEOTWAWKI, than youll limit your intake to preserve your food supply. |
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gonna get pretty 'old' in a hurry.
you need more variety. add some vienna sausage, potted meat, dak ham, canned tuna, canned chicken, different veggies, you can even get packaged hamburger meat that is safe at room temp. eta: just saw the chicken. add some campbells soups? what about hominy, carrots, tomatoes. |
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I disagree on the variety and whatever.
The only thing that really matters is caloric content. How many calories in each can of chef boyardee? (About 500, iirc) Not per serving, but per unit. Same question for everything else. Slap the numbers into Excel and see what you come up with. Then, break that down into minimum and moderate daily rationing for your family. Somewhere between 500 and 1500 per person is usually thought of as a "minimum". Lower than that and you start heading into starvation territory. The logistics get a bit tricky, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Humanity has been supplying food to itself for quite a few years now, and we have a pretty good idea of what you can live on. And, really, survival isn't about variety or morale. Survival is about choosing between eating your dog and eating your shoes. Baseline your planning for that scenario, and you'll be well equipped for less difficult ones. |
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Family of four- 75 lbs. of rice, 40 lb. beans, a couple dozen misc. cans. I would guestimate a little over a month. The rice is going to be the "backbone" of your meals and an extender for the stuff like the chili and stew. We eat rice and beans pretty much daily (pasta some days, homemade pizza some days). We usually cook a cup and a half of rice for the three of us. And we are used to rice as the MAIN PORTION not the side dish. For four people I would guess making 2 cups would be about the minimum. Maybe a cup or so for a breakfast type item. Use any leftovers at lunch time. Essentially you would be going through the rice at probably about 2-3 lbs. per day, especially later when the pogee bait stuff runs out- Ramen, etc.
I wouldn't count on this being more than a "month" of food. Better to err on the LOW SIDE with food than to look at 100 lbs. of rice and go "there is my year supply" like a lot of folks do. Lowdown3 |
| Another idea is to try not a just a wider mix of foods, but a wider mix of food types. My food preps are a mix of standard canned good, long-term storage in #10 cans, bulk staples and MREs. That makes the rotation issue little more tricky (a spreadsheet is your friend), but the variety makes the long-term use of the food more bearable for most folks. |