What are some non-perishable food items to keep on hand in case of a long term power outage?

Question

Also anything else to help prepare for a winter storm.

Answer 1

For long term power outages like the ones that happen during hurricane season, we keep in our cabinets things like:

For Protein
Potted meat
Spam
Vienna Sausages
Peanut Butter

For Fruits
Canned pears
Peaches
Fruit Coattail
Boxes of Raisins

For Veggies
I usually just buy extra for the stuff I use in good weather
Corn
Green beans
Veg-All

For Bread and Grains
Bread
Grits
Crackers
Pancake mix

For Dairy
Powdered Milk
Evaporated milk
Sweet condensed milk

If you have an infant in the house you should keep extra cans of powdered formula as well as twice the amount water you would normally have.
Water is also something you will need during a long power outage.

But one of the most important then you will need is besides the water is some way to heat the food that you have stock piled. I would suggest that you keep a charcoal grill, lighter fluid, and charcoal on hand or a camper's grill. A gas grill can come in handy as well but if you run out of propane you can't use the grill. So before bad weather sets in you should check your propane tank to make sure that it is full and if cost and space permits have a spare tank just in case. These tips can be used for a winter storm as well as hurricane season.
Avoid opening your refrigerator/freezer as much as possible some of your frozen items can last for several hours without going bad. As soon as the lights go out, if you are awake at the time, it is a good idea to remove the milk, eggs, and other items that are frequently used from the refrigerator and put them in a cooler with ice (in the case of a winter storm you can scoop snow into the cooler to keep these things cold.) And use them as soon as possible.
You may also want to have flashlights, blankets, some kind of heat source, such as a battery operated heater, and plenty of batteries to run the heater and the flashlights. You want to try not to use candles or kerosene lamps as they can pose a fire hazard if knocked over. You may also want to invest in a generator but you will have to have space to store it as well as the gas to run it. But you will not be able to run the generator all of the time you will have to conserve gas so you make want to have a plan in place as to what time the generator will be on and when it will be off.
Hope this helps you get through the winter.

Answer 2

Keep bottled water and a camping stove on hand if you have an electric range this way you can cook food and heat water. I would keep things like canned fruit, veggied and beans on hand. You might want some spaghetti and spaghetti sauce maybe some mac and cheese. Think complete meals that come out of a box. I always keep 4 or 5 options in the house just in case. This way I can eat what is in the fridge first and then move to boxes when everything is gone or spoiled from the fridge. If it is snowing out side you can keep perishables outside in a cooler as well as long as the daytime temp does not get up to high. Oh yeah dont forget a flashlight and some extra batteries or one of the ones you can wind up to give you light.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Any kind of canned food will do. Keep a few that you like and eat them from time to time to keep your supply fresh. These things will last a long time in the can. If you can get some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that the military uses. These are getting quite good I am told. Then you need batteries, a flashlight, candles, lighters, matches, a portable stove (WARNING: PORTABLE STOVES AND CHARCOAL ARE KNOWN TO GIVE OFF CARBON MONOXIDE). Use portable stoves with good ventilation. A kerosene heater with #! KEROSENE would be nice. A telephone and a cellphone are good to have in any emergency. A battery operated radio. You can now get good radios with built in generators too.

Answer 5

We just went thru a 4 day bout with no power, the best things by far were...
Individual bottle of water
Lunchables-the ones that don't need to be in the fridge
Pretzles- even though they made us thursty
Beef jerky
Canned fruit- make sure you hane a manual can opener
Basically anything thats good right out of the can. But if you have kids- the Lunchables were the life saver!

Answer 6

Canned goods (make sure you have a manual can opener).
Keep some gallon bottles of water available.

Also, make sure you eat up everything in the fridge first, since you have about 10 hours before things start to go bad.

Answer 7

Military MRE's (meals ready-to eat), bottled water, canned soups and vegetables... it might also be good to keep a propane camp stove around (in case your main stove is electric), plenty of extra blankets, oil lamps, flashlights, and a battery-powered radio.

Answer 8

dried beans.. anything instant that only takes water... those wind up flashlights that have leds... snack items.. oreo's, chips.. popcorn already popped of course.. peanuts.. nuts.... powdered juices where you can mix them and store them in the snow... for chilling...
make sure you have medications... a way to make heat that's non electric. canned goods... water in bottles... blankets...
shovels.. lots of thick boots.. gas... flares.... things like that in case you must try to get out... there's also items you can get at the hardware shops.. for ice... things that come in bags that melt ice... snow...
make sure you have lots of batteries.. for the portable radio, t.v. all that and laptop to make sure there's many opportunities to reach the outside world for news and any other information...
and make sure the cell phones are always charged and that.. if towers are down.. you have a way to get connected to emergency services through c.b. radio or long wave/short wave just in case you really have to get communications out to the local authorities too.

Answer 9

As a Mormon our Prophet has asked all his parishioners to "store for the bad days ahead". We have been asked to store food for six months to a year's supply depending on our storage area and the number of persons in the immediate family that we r storing for. Such provisions r bottled distilled water, canned wheat and oats, canned foods and vegetables, non-perishable foods such as dehydrated fruits and cereals, canned vegetables and fruits, canned meats, dried eggs, flour, etc.

As for other things such as kerosene and lanterns, a Coleman portable stove, air mattresses, clean dry linen stored in plastic storage bags, candles, batteries, radios, flashlights, utensils for cooking and eating, pots and pans, blankets, quilts in air tight storage plastic bags to protect them from the elements until needed, extra clean clothes in stored plastic bags, gloves, hats, scarfs,calendar, watches or clocks battery operated with extra batteries, water resistant shoes, fishing poles, anything u think of that u use on a daily basis.

Answer 10

Put stuff in there that taste Ok without being heated.I like bbq beans, pork& beans,vienna sausage,ravioli,can stews, corn beef,beef jerky,cream corn,pop tarts,dry cereal(sweetened)evaporated milk,bottle water,Tang--really a lot of things are great.Don't forget--batteries,candles,matches,canopener,lamp oil,salt&pepper....Blankets and other things to keep warm and or rain off of you.....