Survival Food Storage 101

If purchasing long-term food storage is part of your food prepping plan, you should understand how the packages break down. Even though I preach “buy the calories” food storage producer’s package their products by the serving.

Commonality

The most common thing you will notice is how they are sold, by the servig. Almost all food companies, except Mountain House, offer packages in the following serving sizes: 120, 240, 360, 720, 1440, 2160, 2880 and 4320 serving packages. Why do they all use these serving sizes? Besides the easy math, I can only speculate. My guess is that it has something to do with saving money on packaging and shipping.

120 = (1) 4 gallon bucket
240 = (2) 4 gallon buckets or (1) Larger 6 gallon bucket
360 = (4) 4 gallon buckets or (1) Larger 6 gallon bucket & small 4 gallon
720 = (6-8) 4 Gallon Buckets or (3) Larger 6 gallon buckets.
1440 = Roughly 1/3 of a pallet
2160 = Roughly 2/3 of a pallet
2880 = Roughly One pallet
2880 = One Large pallet
4320 = 2 Palets

Meal Plans, Packages & Kits

Wise, Survival Cave and Legacy are sold in the denominations stated above, as well as most of the other Survival Food Storage companies out there. The 120 serving bucket is the base for all of the other packages. Meaning, all of the larger packages are merely duplicates of the 120 serving bucket, i.e. 120 x 2 = 240.

These types of food packages are most often sold in denominations of time, or by the serving; for example, “12 month supply” or “720 serving meal package.” These buckets are almost always comprised of entrees and breakfasts.

If you’ve read our “Buy Calories not Serving” section you know that we are no fan of selling emergency food storage packages by the serving. It’s confusing at best, and downright dishonest in some cases. If you didn’t read it, please go back and do so.

Single Item Staples & A La Carte Items

Each of our companies offer “sides” to compliment these packages, and they are usually sold in the same type of buckets that the meal packages are sold, 120, 240, 360, etc. They range from staple rice and bean buckets to extravagant freeze dried fruits and sauces.

It’s important to note that freeze dried staples, meats, fruits and veggies are all sold by the serving. This is because these items are classified as “add-on packages” to the complete meal packages. When compiling an “A La Carte” Survival Food Storage plan, you still want to be paying attention to the calorie counts so that you reach the desired count for your chosen time period.

However, if you have already purchased your long-term food storage, you may want to use the serving counts as a quick reference on how to best enhance your current food preps.

For example, if you are a family of four and you already have a month’s supply of food stored, you may want to add two servings of veggies a day for each family member, i.e. 2 servings x 4 people x 30 days = 240 servings.