A reasonable baseline is 2,000 calories per person per day, with roughly one pound of dry staple foods (rice, beans, oats, or pasta) forming the caloric backbone of your supply. For a two-week emergency, that translates to about 14 pounds of dry grains and legumes per adult, plus canned proteins, fats, and supplemental foods. For longer timelines, the math scales up, but so does the complexity of keeping your nutrition balanced.
Daily Calorie Targets by Activity Level
The number of calories you need depends heavily on how hard you’re working. A sedentary adult waiting out a power outage has very different needs than someone clearing storm debris or hauling water. The National Research Council’s recommended energy intakes give a useful frame: adult men aged 19 to 50 need roughly 2,300 to 2,900 calories per day during light to moderate activity, while women in the same range need about 1,900 to 2,200. People over 50 fall toward the lower end of those ranges.
Heavy physical labor can push requirements to double your resting energy expenditure, which for most adults means well above 3,000 calories a day. Planning around 2,000 calories per person per day is a common shorthand for stockpiling, but if your emergency scenario involves significant manual work, bump that figure to 2,500 or higher. Children under 12 need less, typically 1,200 to 1,800 depending on age.
How Much to Store by Timeline
Government guidance from Ready.gov recommends keeping at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food on hand. Most preparedness experts treat two weeks as the practical minimum for weather events, infrastructure failures, or supply chain disruptions. Here’s what that looks like per adult at 2,000 calories per day:
- 3 days (72-hour kit): About 6,000 calories total. This fits in a small box: a few canned goods, peanut butter, protein bars, dried fruit, and crackers.
- 2 weeks: About 28,000 calories. Roughly 14 pounds of dry staples, plus 7 to 10 cans of meat or vegetables, a jar of peanut butter, and a container of cooking oil.
- 3 months: About 180,000 calories. For dry staples alone, plan on roughly 18 pounds each of rice and beans per adult. Children need about 12 pounds of each.
- 1 year: About 730,000 calories. Historical and modern estimates converge around 300 to 400 pounds of grain per person per year, supplemented with 60 to 100 pounds of legumes, plus fats, canned goods, and other foods.
These numbers assume dry staples as the caloric foundation. In practice, you’ll also need fats, canned proteins, sweeteners, salt, and other foods to make the diet survivable and nutritionally adequate.
What to Actually Stock
A stockpile built entirely on rice and beans will keep you alive, but it creates nutritional gaps and morale problems quickly. A well-rounded supply covers five categories.
Grains and Starches
White rice is the gold standard for long-term storage. Stored properly, it keeps almost indefinitely. Brown rice, despite being more nutritious, only lasts about six months because the oils in the bran layer go rancid. Rolled oats, pasta, cornmeal, and flour round out this category, though flour has a shorter shelf life of one to two years without special packaging. One pound of dry grain provides roughly 1,500 to 1,600 calories.
Legumes and Proteins
Dried beans, lentils, and split peas complement grains by providing protein and nutrients that grains lack. Together, rice and beans form a complete protein. Canned meats like chicken, tuna, beef stew, and spam last 2 to 5 years on the shelf. Peanut butter is calorie-dense and stores well for about a year. Tuna in retort pouches has a shorter window of around 18 months.
Fats and Oils
This is the category most people understock, and it’s critical. Fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient, packing over twice the energy per gram of carbohydrates or protein. Coconut oil stores exceptionally well, with manufacturers rating it at 2 years and real-world reports extending to 5 years or more. Vegetable shortening can last 2 years officially, with anecdotal reports of 10 years or longer. Olive oil lasts 18 months to 2 years in sealed, dark containers. Ghee keeps about a year at room temperature or 2 to 3 years refrigerated. Plan for at least 2 tablespoons of fat per person per day, which works out to roughly a quart of oil per person per month.
Canned Fruits and Vegetables
Low-acid canned goods (vegetables, soups, stews) last 2 to 5 years. High-acid foods like canned tomatoes and fruits have a slightly shorter window of 12 to 18 months. These provide vitamins, fiber, and variety that dry staples lack. Ready.gov specifically recommends canned fruits, vegetables, and juices as core items for an emergency kit.
Supplemental and Comfort Foods
Honey, sugar, salt, powdered milk, coffee, tea, dried fruit, protein bars, and dry cereal all belong in a stockpile. Comfort foods matter more than most people expect. During a prolonged emergency, familiar flavors reduce stress and help maintain normalcy, especially for children. Ready.gov includes comfort and stress foods as an explicit category in its recommendations.
Water Is the Bigger Bottleneck
Food planning means nothing without water. The CDC recommends storing at least 1 gallon per person per day, covering drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene like brushing teeth. That’s a minimum. In hot weather or with physical exertion, actual drinking needs alone can reach a gallon, pushing total needs to 1.5 or 2 gallons per day.
For a family of four over two weeks, the minimum CDC recommendation works out to 56 gallons. That’s a lot of space. Commercially sealed water bottles store well for years. If you’re storing tap water in food-grade containers, rotate it every six months. Keep unscented household bleach (5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite) on hand to purify questionable water sources if needed.
Filling Nutritional Gaps
A diet of rice, beans, and canned goods will keep you fed but can leave you short on key vitamins, particularly vitamin C, vitamin D, and calcium. The University of Georgia’s extension service recommends storing 365 multivitamin tablets per person per year as a straightforward safeguard against deficiency. Pay attention to expiration dates, since potency declines over time. Vitamin C tablets are especially worth adding, because scurvy can develop within one to three months on a diet with no fresh produce, and most dry staples contain zero vitamin C.
Storage Conditions That Protect Your Supply
Where you store food matters as much as what you store. Research from Utah State University Extension identifies the optimal range as 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in a low-humidity environment. Temperature has a dramatic effect on longevity: a Brigham Young University study found that wheat stored in a cool basement retained acceptable quality for 25 years, while the same wheat stored in a hot garage or attic lasted only 5 years.
Basements, interior closets, and climate-controlled spaces are ideal. Garages, attics, and sheds are the worst options. For long-term staples like rice and beans, oxygen absorbers sealed inside food-grade Mylar bags within 5-gallon buckets are the most common approach. This combination blocks light, moisture, oxygen, and pests simultaneously. Label everything with the packing date and rotate older stock forward as you add new supplies.
A Practical Per-Person Shopping List
For a 2-week supply at roughly 2,000 calories per day, here’s a starting point for one adult:
- White rice: 7 to 10 pounds
- Dried beans or lentils: 5 to 7 pounds
- Rolled oats or pasta: 3 to 5 pounds
- Canned meat or fish: 7 to 10 cans
- Peanut butter: 1 to 2 jars
- Cooking oil or coconut oil: 1 quart
- Canned fruits and vegetables: 10 to 14 cans
- Salt, sugar, honey: 1 to 2 pounds each
- Powdered milk: 1 to 2 pounds
- Multivitamins: 14 tablets
- Water: 14 gallons minimum
Scale linearly for longer timelines and additional household members. Children under 12 need roughly 60% to 75% of adult quantities. If anyone in your household has food allergies, celiac disease, or requires infant formula, plan those needs separately since they won’t be easy to source during an emergency.