Disaster Skills: Plan Some No-Cook Meals

An army moves on its stomach and so will your household during a utility outage or some other emergency.

In the overall scheme of things, food can rank pretty low on the list of life or death priorities, but in a society where most people are accustomed to three square meals a day and snacks – going without your normal meals can be a painful ordeal. While most of us can last for weeks without food (given adequate shelter and water), food will become a major issue when you don’t have enough or you don’t have the right kind during a disaster. The top concern for your family is calories. Subsequent issues are ease of preparation, shelf life and cost. For both short term and long term food supplies in a disaster kit, consider food that is ready to eat (no cooking required, and ideally, something you could eat it while walking). Sure, a big pot of beans can feed a crowd and provide some nutritious comfort food - but you have to slow cook them for several hours. Do you have an energy source that will last that long? On a repeated basis?

This could be something like peanut butter and crackers (make sure you replace the crackers every 6 months, as they will go stale). It could also be trail mix (rotate this every 6 months as well, since the nuts will go rank). Or you could get something with a longer shelf life, like survival rations. My favorites are New Millennium food bars. These come in many different flavors, they won’t melt in the heat, you can still eat them when they are frozen, and they have a five year shelf life. Larger ration bars aren’t a bad idea either.

Common grocery store items can also fit the parameters of no cooking and long life. Various canned meats, meals and dry goods can last for years and offer an affordable and familiar menu to your family. Whatever you buy, make sure it’s something that you and your family would eat on a normal basis. The upheaval of your normal routine is bad enough. You don’t need to add the trauma of nasty food to your emergency.

Written by Tim MacWelch First draft published on outdoorlife.com