The 'BASIC 6' Food Storage Groups, and How Much You Should Have

If you are thinking about starting your food storage, or you just want to revamp and fill in the gaps, there is a priority for what comes first.

Generally speaking, there is a "basic 6" when it comes to food storage.  These include:

Grains
Milk
Legumes
Sugars
Cooking Essentials
Fats and oils

Why?  Because these 6 things provide basic survival nutritional value.  If you had to live on these 6 things and nothing else, you could.

Coincidentally, they are also some of the cheapest to come by, so it's a great place to start.

But how much do you get?

It all breaks down into what your goals are, but I generally make a recommendation of getting a 3 month supply at roughly 2000 calories per day. 

Because:

1) most of these things (aside from fats and oils) have a 20-30+ year shelf life.  A 3 month supply is easy to rotate through in that amount of time.

2) this is the base of your food storage.  You could survive on that many calories per day, though it wouldn't be pleasant.  Once you have these things, you can start supplementing with convenience and comfort foods (fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and yogurt, etc.).  This either expands your supply to more than 3 months, or adds to it, upping your daily caloric intake.

Recommendations for 1 person for 3 months:

You can either go off of pounds (weight of product), or calories.  Here is a general rundown of how I break up each food group.  Remember this is a recommendation for 1 person at roughly 2000 calories per day for 3 months:

Grains: 75 lb
a 6 gallon bucket of wheat is 45 lbs
a 6 gallon bucket of rice is 40 lbs
a 6 gallon bucket of oats is 20 lbs

Powdered Milk: 19 lb
a 6 gallon bucket of powdered milk is 28 lbs
a #10 can of powdered milk is just over 3 lbs

Legumes: 15 lb
a 6 gallon bucket of pinto beans is 39 lbs
a #10 can of pinto beans is 4.5 lbs

Sugars: 15 lb
a 6 gallon bucket of cane sugar is 40 lbs

Cooking Essentials: 2 lb
1 lb. of salt, 1/4 lb. baking soda, 1/4 lb. baking powder, .125 gallons vinegar, .125 gallons yeast

Fats and Oils: 3.25 lb
1 gallon of vegetable oil is 3.78 lbs

All of these items are readily available at most local grocery stores.  Costco almost always has the best prices.  If this option isn't available you can also find great deals at the LDS cannery.

If you are looking more into long term storage, or you are unable to find any of these things in your store, you can click on any link below to find out more information on the product and how to order online.

Grains:

wheat, rice (brown, regular or instant), oats (regular or quick), white flour, barley, quinoa, millet, amaranth, cornmeal, spelt, pasta

Milk

Instant or non-fat powdered milk, evaporated milk, shelf stable milk

Legumes

dried beans (black, pinto, kidney, white, garbanzo, red, instant), refried, lima, soy, split pea, lentils

Sugars

Powdered, brown, granulated, honey, agave, molasses, corn syrup, powdered drinks, gelatin, jams

Cooking Essentials

salt, baking powder, baking soda, vinegar, yeast

Fats and oils

Olive, coconut, vegetable, canola, shortening, salad dressings, mayonnaise, butter

Keep in mind that you want to build a supply of foods that you and your family are used to eating.  Obviously anything is better than nothing, but knowing how to use your storage and knowing how your body may react to it is also something to consider.