Professional Soldiers ® - View Single Post - Emergency Storage Food, who's got the best for the price?

**The Reaper** · 01-29-2014, 22:31

I will second Peregrino's mix.

Contents of a couple of large pantries to start with, MREs or Freeze Dried for short term / supplementation / portability, and RainyDay/Walton Feed for the bulk staples.

You will find if you go to the RainyDay website, that shipping is a killer. If you call the customer service number, they have regional coordinators (usually LDS people) who consolidate orders and the warehouse has a dedicated tractor trailer that delivers groups of orders. The delivered prices from the consolidator were less than the retail from the factory. You can get a dedicated delivery if you buy 2,000 pounds or so.

Bear in mind that super pails with mylar liners and oxygen absorbers or #10 cans are the best way to preserve the food for the long term, and that the coolest storage available will extend the shelf life of most foods. Even so, items with a lot of oils or fats will degrade very quickly. You let powdered milk, powdered eggs, or even MREs sit outdoors, in an unconditioned storage unit, or in an attic at 120 degrees, don't expect most items to be good for much more than a year.

Pay attention to the calories, the source of the calories (a 55 gallon drum of hard candy has enough calories to theoretically carry you for a long time, but not the nutritional values you need to sustain yourself), cost, shelf-life, portion sizes, palatability, and portability.

And buy what you eat, not a bunch of stuff that you don't like or have never tried.

The local LDS canneries have mostly closed and you have to go to the regional Bishop's storage or order the few remaining products from the website http://www.providentlivingcenter.com/ .

Hope that helps.

TR

01-29-2014, 22:31	#8
The Reaper Quiet Professional Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Free Pineland Posts: 24,822	I will second Peregrino's mix. Contents of a couple of large pantries to start with, MREs or Freeze Dried for short term / supplementation / portability, and RainyDay/Walton Feed for the bulk staples. You will find if you go to the RainyDay website, that shipping is a killer. If you call the customer service number, they have regional coordinators (usually LDS people) who consolidate orders and the warehouse has a dedicated tractor trailer that delivers groups of orders. The delivered prices from the consolidator were less than the retail from the factory. You can get a dedicated delivery if you buy 2,000 pounds or so. Bear in mind that super pails with mylar liners and oxygen absorbers or #10 cans are the best way to preserve the food for the long term, and that the coolest storage available will extend the shelf life of most foods. Even so, items with a lot of oils or fats will degrade very quickly. You let powdered milk, powdered eggs, or even MREs sit outdoors, in an unconditioned storage unit, or in an attic at 120 degrees, don't expect most items to be good for much more than a year. Pay attention to the calories, the source of the calories (a 55 gallon drum of hard candy has enough calories to theoretically carry you for a long time, but not the nutritional values you need to sustain yourself), cost, shelf-life, portion sizes, palatability, and portability. And buy what you eat, not a bunch of stuff that you don't like or have never tried. The local LDS canneries have mostly closed and you have to go to the regional Bishop's storage or order the few remaining products from the website http://www.providentlivingcenter.com/ . Hope that helps. TR __________________ "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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