3 Top Tips for Food Security in a Crisis

How to plan food for a short term crisis

I often get questions about food security through short term emergencies. People want to know the best ways to prepare and the foods that offer the best investment.

Last summer, our region experienced a sudden and unexpected storm. Trees went down everywhere leaving wires and telephone poles down. Electricity was out for 4-7 days in some areas. We were glad to have plenty of the options below and not panic about hunger, driving long distances to find restaurants, or standing in long lines at those few places that still had power.

Let's say that your area is expecting a big storm. You are stuck at work and cannot get to the store in time to pick up the requisite bread, milk and toilet paper. Are there ways to plan ahead with your food so you don't have to worry or even think about a short term crisis or power outages?

YES! 

What do you do when you need to keep your family fed?

Here are 3 ways to tackle supply chain challenges paired with high inflation and possible food shortages.

We are going to assume for the purposes of this discussion that you have plenty of drinkable water. Either a fresh water source or bottled water that you have access to. If you don't, that's actually the first thing to tackle. Get on that RIGHT AWAY.

The top 3 tips for food security in a crisis:

1. Know the foods your family will eat that do NOT need refrigeration or cooking.

2. 4 shelf stable foods that will get you through any crisis.

3. Eat healthy fats and a lot of them.

Number 1

Know the BEST items that your family will eat that do not need refrigeration or cooking and still provide flavor and nutrition.

No one loves eating freeze dried foods that taste like cardboard. Freeze dried meals are notorious for providing questionable nutrition and the quality can vary widely. You can either invest a lot of resources in food of questionable quality and flavor that you have to store for years, or you can choose specific items that are easy to rotate through your pantry or fridge to keep them fresh.

Examples of this are:

• nuts

• seeds

• dried fruits

• fermented veggies

Nuts and seeds are obvious. These are amazing snacks all the time. When you buy in bulk, you will get a price break. You can buy in really large quantities and split orders with other families. If you want to really get into it, you can work towards growing your own trees for some nuts or seeds.

This is the same for fruit. When you get high quality dried fruits, they are delicious, they are packed with nutrients, and have low levels of chemical residue. Keeping dried fruit and nuts on hand all the time means you won't ever have to panic when a storm is coming and you don't need to worry about throwing away everything in your fridge/freezer or cooking when the power is out.

The last item on here is fermented veggies. What are these? Think about traditional sauerkraut. When the cabbage harvest came in, people needed to use it. What do you do when you have HUNDREDS of cabbages that all need to be processed in a few weeks? You make sauerkraut.

Many traditional cultures have their own sauerkraut recipes. There is traditional Russian kraut, curtido–from Central America regions–that has oregano, carrots and jalapeños. Kimchi is probably the most widely known version. To make any of these fermented veggies, you pound the cabbage to break down the cell walls, add salt, and then let it all sit in a ceramic crock for a few days to a few weeks. Then you have super healthy stable food. It's chock full of C and B vitamins, and, of course, fiber from the cabbage, and lactobacillus bacteria which is amazing for our gut health. Usually fermented veggies are stored in the fridge. But, if the electric goes out, it is fine out of the fridge for a few days. It is a great source of nutrition and does not need to be cooked.

Learn ahead of time what your family likes from all these options. You can stock up on something great, and if your kids won't eat it, it's not a good investment.

Number 2

HOOP – Honey, Oatmeal, Oil (coconut or olive), and Peanut butter (or almond, cashew or sunflower)

These are all items that last a loooong time, are good daily staples, are healthy (unless you are allergic to peanuts), and they taste good.

Real honey lasts for centuries. Find local raw honey. Get enough to eat and to keep some on hand. In the event of a crisis or prolonged food shortage, honey never spoils, it doubles as a first aid antibiotic, it is delicious, and you can use it to flavor all your other foods.

Raw oatmeal you can use for dozens of recipes. If you are lucky enough to have fire to boil water, you can make hot oatmeal. Otherwise, you can mix with the last of your milk from the fridge for a nice cold breakfast cereal.

Coconut oil is a shelf stable fat that our bodies use for quick energy and is highly nutritious. While olive oil doesn’t last quite as long, we generally use olive oil for many things. It is a pantry staple short term. Both these oils add calories and nutrition to the meals you’ll be fixing during a crisis and neither need to be cooked.

With these 4 items together, you can make a variety of energy-type bars. None of these items need refrigeration or cooking. All are delicious and nutrient-dense. The oil and nut butter are high calorie meaning you don't need as much to keep a family fed and happy.

The key to these things is you want to get as high quality as you can. Make your investment count! Get the organic versions. If the electricity is out for 4 or 5 days, your food budget just went way down. Get the pure peanut butter without any oil added. You can add your own and you don't know the quality of what they add.

Always have these 4 ingredients on hand for emergencies and for everyday use. You’ll be glad!

Number 3

High fat foods and 12+ hours between meals are better in a crisis

Remember to keep your blood sugar low. No one wants to be hungry for a long time. But it's important to remember our history as humans and that food–especially sugary food–was not always at our fingertips. Our livers store 24 hours worth of energy. After that, we start using our fat stores for quick energy.

When you fuel up with higher fat items (nuts seeds, healthy oils like coconut oil, butter, olive oil, lard), your body will go into fat-burning mode. This actually keeps you calmer than abrupt sugar highs and crashes. So when you are considering what to invest in for your emergency stores, keep in mind the ways that our metabolism and moods work together.

Don't be afraid of spacing your meals out longer. It helps the food last longer if you don't know when the crisis will end AND it helps our bodies better manage the emergency.

There you go. The top 3 tips for food security in a crisis are:

1. Knowing ahead of time what foods do not need refrigeration or cooking and keeping some on hand.

2. Honey, oatmeal, oil and peanut butter--if all you get are these 4 ingredients, you will be in a better position than most.

3. Eat as high fat as you can until you know when the crisis will end.

Have you used these techniques or others during a short term crisis? Please share what has worked for you.