How long could you feed your family, if you couldn’t go shopping?

With cornavirus looming, who knows which food supplies might run short, if the supply chain and deliveries get disrupted.

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I first wrote about stocking up on emergency food supplies after seeing photos of empty supermarket shelves during ‘Beast from the East’ snow storms.

A few days of severe weather seemed to make half the country grind to a halt. With many shops reliant on central warehouses, food deliveries got disrupted by the snow.

Luckily back in 2018, more by luck than judgement, I’d just done a big food shop. This meant we could hole up at home for several days, without braving freezing temperatures and icy roads to buy anything extra. But up in Edinburgh, loads of shops near my sister ran out of basics like bread and milk.

Even in good weather, an emergency food stockpile could come in handy. If money is tight, benefits are delayed or illness keeps you stuck inside, extra supplies will help tide you over. Certainly when we tried to cut costs by using up the contents of our fridge, freezer and kitchen cupboards, it made a big difference.

Post with the results of our storecupboard challenge

Researching this post, I fell down a rabbit hole of ‘preppers‘, bracing themselves for the collapse of civilisation or the zombie apolocalypse. I’m not suggesting you stockpile rifles in the spare room, but having a few extra tins can’t hurt.

Top tips for starting an emergency food stockpile

Think long life, non-perishable food

Add one or two items a week, if you don’t want to bust your budget (or give yourself a hernia carrying stuff home)

Take advantage of multi buy offers like ‘buy one, get one free’

Switch to own-brands and value range items to keep costs down

If kitchen space is tight, keep a few cans under the bed or at the bottom of your wardrobe

Rotate stocks to stop food going off, pulling items with the shortest dates to the front

When you use something from the stockpile, replace it next time you go shopping

Think about storage, for example keeping flour in a tightly sealed container

Set aside space in your freezer. I try to keep some essentials handy, like a sliced loaf, frozen peas, frozen meat and fish, butter and ever-faithful fishfingers

Choose items your family will actually eat. No point stashing lentils or quinoa if your nearest and dearest won’t touch them

Even without an emergency, these supplies could all come in handy for a self-catering holiday or last minute camping trip

Post with what to pack to cut the cost of a self-catering holiday

Essential items for an emergency food stockpile

Here’s my list of suggestions:

Porridge oats

Cereal

Powdered milk or long life milk

Long life fruit juice

Tea

Coffee

Rice

Pasta

Flour

Sugar

Yeast

Baking powder

Honey

Peanut butter

Tinned beans, like baked beans or kidney beans

Chickpeas

Lentils

Tinned tomatoes

Tinned fish like tuna, salmon and sardines

Tinned meat or a jar of frankfurters

Tinned potatoes, if you can face them, or Smash

Tinned fruit, like peaches, grapefruit, pears or pineapple

Dried fruit like raisins or apricots

Curry paste

Pesto

Tomato puree

Stock cubes

Spices and flavours like chilli powder and soy sauce

Cooking oil

Salt and pepper

Non food items

Spare tin opener

Candles and matches

Torch and batteries

Pet supplies like pet food and cat litter

Spare medicine

Loo roll

Toothpaste

Soap

Toiletries like shampoo, conditioner, deodorant (Maybe those hotel miniatures would come in handy!)

Possible meals from an emergency food stockpile

Breakfast

With the supplies above, we could have breakfast with cereal or porridge, tea or coffee, some fruit juice and tinned fruit.

Lunch

If we didn’t have a spare loaf in the freezer, I could still use the flour and yeast to make bread to eat with peanut butter or honey, with soup, sardines or baked beans, or as sandwiches. If I made rolls, we could use the frankfurters to make hotdogs.

Main meals

I can’t pretend these are gourmet options, but they’d be warm and filling:

Fishcakes using tuna or salmon with smash, plus baked beans

Tuna pasta bake, adding tinned tomatoes and pasta

Rice salad with tuna, salmon or frankfurters plus sweetcorn

Chickpea or lentil curry with rice

Veggie chilli with rice, using tomatoes, kidney beans and chilli powder

Pasta pesto with frozen peas

On the sweet side, the dried milk and flour would come in handy making pancakes to eat with honey and tinned or dried fruit. I might throw caution to the wind and add a packet of jelly and evaporated milk to the list, to make puddings for the kids. I didn’t attempt adding biscuits to a stockpile – they’d get eaten well before any emergency!

If you’re not keen on much cooking, then cans of chilli, soup, stew, curry and ravioli might appeal.

In practice, I’d rarely have only these essentials on hand. I usually have cheese and eggs knocking around, which could expand our meals to home-made pizza using flour and yeast, egg fried rice, cheese on toast and omelettes, for example. Even bendy carrots, potatoes and sprouting onions can make a base for soups and tomato sauces.

Now over to you – what would you add to an emergency stockpile? What essentials do you always have to hand? Do let me know in the comments, as I’d love to hear!