The basic amount needed per adult per year is 300 pounds of grain and 60 pounds of beans & legumes.
That sounds pretty tiresome, so The Food Guys & Emergency Preparedness Center have a more palatable list of food to store (both of these links use the same calculator). The calculator estimates that per adult per year you should store the following (assume pounds unless another unit is stated):
Grains (300 lbs total)
- 150 Wheat
- 25 Flour
- 25 Corn meal
- 25 oats
- 25 rice
- 25 pasta
Beans and Legumes (60 lbs total)
- 30 Dry beans
- 5 Lima beans
- 10 Soy beans
- 5 Split Peas
- 5 Lentils
- 5 Dry Soup Mix
Fats and Oils (25 lbs total)
- 4 Peanut Butter
- 4 Shortening
- 2 Vegetable (gallons)
- 2 Mayonnaise (quarts)
- 1 Salad Dressing (quart)
Milk and Dairy (75 lbs total)
- 60 Dry Milk
- 12 Evaporated milk (cans)
- 13 Other Dairy
Sugars (60 lbs total)
- 3 Honey
- 40 Sugar, white
- 3 Brown sugar
- 1 Molasses
- 3 Corn syrup
- 3 jam
- 6 Powdered fruit drink
- 1 Flavored Gelatin
Cooking Essentials
- 5 Salt
- 1 Baking Powder
- 1 Baking Soda
- .5 Vinegar (gallon)
- .5 Yeast
Fruit (185 lbs)
- 40 Apples
- 40 Applesauce (I use this to replace sugar and fat in baked goods)
- 60 dried fruit (dates, raisins, banana chips, etc)
- 40 Fruit Juices
- 35 Fruit mixture (canned)
Vegetables (185 lbs dried, canned, dehydrated, in root cellar, etc)
- 30 Corn
- 30 Peas
- 30 Green beans
- 30 Carrots
- 40 Potatoes
- 5 Onions
- 20 Tomatoes
Obviously you’re going to change this list (I hope!).
Grains: add brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, amaranth, spelt, whole dried corn, dry tortellini (counts toward dairy too).
Fats and oils: many kinds of vegetable oils, almond butter, tahini, vacuum sealed almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower & pepitas seeds, poppy, sesame, and flax seeds (in freezer, pump-n-seal in emergency no electricity outage)
Legumes: more lentil and split peas (excellent nutrition), all kinds of beans (if you have a grain mill: ground into a flour during emergencies so they’ll cook faster)
Sugars: agave and maple syrup
When my book “Whole Grain Crackers, Chips, Biscotti, Cereal, Flat Breads and More” comes out, it will have a pantry list that’s a good shopping list for emergency food as well.
And don’t forget to store water as well! Two weeks for a person is 14 gallons, and have a gallon of bleach on hand as well as a water purifier.
