Emergency Food Calculator
| Household | 3-day meals | 1-week | 2-week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | 9 | 21 | 42 |
| 2 people | 18 | 42 | 84 |
| 4 people | 36 | 84 | 168 |
| 6 people | 54 | 126 | 252 |
Three meals per person per day, one main-dish item each - the can-or-pouch count, not a menu.
An outage knocks out the refrigerator, the stove and sometimes the water pressure - dinner becomes whatever opens without electricity. Ready.gov's food guidance is blunt about it: store at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food your family will actually eat, favoring canned goods and dry mixes that need no refrigeration, cooking, water or special preparation - and put a manual can opener in the kit, because a stockpile without access is not a plan.
The calculator sizes the stockpile the way shoppers actually buy it: every person, every day, three meals, one main-dish item per meal. A family of four covering two weeks shelves 168 of them, which is why the pros plan dense - stews, beans, tuna, peanut butter, whole grains - instead of variety. Then rotate: eat the oldest cans on an ordinary Tuesday, replace them on the next shopping run, and the emergency shelf is simply your pantry with a deeper row.
How to use
- Set the household size and the horizon - a three-day evacuation stash, a week of storm season, or the two-week home reserve preparedness offices suggest for sheltering in place.
- Read the meals figure as one main dish per person per meal - the can-or-pouch count, not a menu plan - and buy the closest case sizes up from it.
- Pair the pantry with water: every person also needs a gallon a day for drinking and sanitation, which the emergency-water side of the house sizes separately.
Frequently asked questions
What foods belong in an emergency food supply?
Ready.gov's shopping logic: canned meats, fruits, vegetables, beans and soups; peanut butter and nuts; granola bars and dry mixes; shelf-stable juice and milk. Pick food the household already eats, note any special dietary needs, and do not skip comfort food - a bag of cookies does real morale work in a real outage. Add a manual can opener and disposable utensils to the bag itself.
How long does canned food actually keep?
Widely published USDA guidance puts high-acid cans like tomatoes at 12 to 18 months of peak quality and low-acid cans - meats and most vegetables - at two to five years, past the date on the can as long as the seal holds. The real rules are the hard ones: a bulging can, a busted seam or heavy rust goes in the trash unopened. Rotate the shelf by eating the oldest stock and the dates stop mattering.
How long is fridge food safe in an outage?
The widely taught rule of thumb: an unopened refrigerator holds a safe temperature about four hours, a full freezer about 48 hours (half that at half full), and after that perishables are cook-now-or-toss. When in doubt, throw it out - the classic phrase exists because it is cheaper than a night of food poisoning. An appliance thermometer in the fridge turns the guesswork into a reading.
Is a 72-hour kit still the standard?
Three days remains the evacuation baseline - the grab-and-go duffel for a hotel or a shelter. The wider preparedness consensus now adds a two-week home supply for the disasters that strand you in place, which is why this calculator lets you stretch the horizon to fourteen days. Start at three days, finish the duffel, then deepen the pantry shelf by shelf - done beats perfect.