Hurricane food to store before the storm!

If a hurricane passes through your area, you’ll want a stockpile of nonperishable foods and water to ensure you can eat when there is no running power or water. Don’t get caught unprepared, get started stockpiling a two-week food supply. Next, let’s examine the best hurricane foods.

25 Nonperishable Snacks

Ready-to-eat, nonperishable snacks are one of the food types you want to store before a natural disaster or hurricane because you might find yourself in a situation where cooking isn’t possible, and snack foods are one of the only options.

For example, if you drive out of a hurricane area, the power might already be out, so credit cards might not work, refrigerator units might be down, and stores might be closed. If stores are open and operating, you’ll compete for whatever is left on the store shelves. Avoid this scenario by stocking up on snack foods ahead of time. Following is a list of 25 foods to store in your hurricane emergency kit.

Snacks

1. Peanuts
2. Cashews
3. Mixed Nuts
4. Ritz and Saltine Crackers
5. Canned Cheese & Cheese Dip
6. Canned Bean Dip
7. Canned Salsas
8. Sunflower seeds
9. Corn Nuts
10. Nut Butters
11. Bags of Pre-Cooked Popcorn (Plain, caramel, or whatever dry spice you choose)-probably only last a week.
12. Protein Bars
13. Granola Bars
14. Freeze-dried fruits: strawberries, apples, apricots, banana slices, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries
15. Dehydrated fruits-strawberries, apples, apricots, banana slices, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries
16. Energy Bars
17. Sweet Tooth Bars: Little Debbie Snack Cakes, Moon pies, Oatmeal creme pies, Hostess Ding-dongs
18. Cookies (There are healthy cookies like Lenny and Larry’s, I like the double chocolate)
19. Survival Bars
20. Vacuum-packed tuna and salmon
21. Chips, pretzels, and other snack-like junk food
22. Unopened dried/sugared fruits like raisins, dates, and mango
23. Beef Jerky
24. Trail Mixes
25. Meals Ready to Eat (Not really a snack but has snacks that don’t need to be heated)

Up next, nonperishable proteins fo a hurricane emergency kit.

22 Nonperishable Proteins

Proteins are an essential hurricane food, foods like peanut butter and protein bars are a good start to your stockpile but there are other options. Check out the list of nonperishable proteins below to spark some ideas for your hurricane grocery list.

“We need protein in our diet to help repair damaged cells and to make new ones. “protein is also important for the growth and development of children, teens, and pregnant women.”

Melineplus.gov,

Protein

1. Dried Beans
2. Dry Grains
   1. Hard High Gluten Wheat Berries (husked dried wheat-30 year shelf life in oxygen-free storage)
   2. Quinoa
   3. Rolled Oats (30-year shelf life in oxygen-free storage)
3. Pulses (30-year shelf life in oxygen-free storage)
4. Canned Beans
5. Canned stews and soups with meat and or beans
6. Nuts (limited shelf-life due to high-fat content)
7. Peanut Butter (limited shelf-life)
8. Peanut Butter Powder
9. Canned Meat
10. Meat in retort pouches (tuna & salmon)
11. Freeze-dried Ground Beef
12. Freeze-dried steak
13. Freeze-dried chicken
14. Protein Powders: Whey, Egg White, Replacement Shakes
15. Dried Eggs
16. Whole Egg Powder
17. Sprouting Seed Mixes (lentils, broccoli, alfalfa, quinoa, soybean, pea sprouts)
18. Non-fat Dried Milk
19. Canned Milk
20. High-protein Bars
21. Whole Wheat Pasta
22. Couscous

Next up, canned meats.

26 Nonperishable canned meats

No selff respecting prepper would stockpile a hurricane preparedness kit without some canned meat for a shot of protein. Most of my canned meat is tuna and Spam but I also have Vienna sausages, canned hams, and meat chilis. Let’s take a look at the list of 26 canned types of meat to store for hurricane food.

Canned Meat

1. Spam
2. Canned Chicken
3. Canned Beef
4. Canned Tuna
5. Canned Salmon
6. Vienna Sausages
7. Canned Ham
8. Corned Beef Hash
9. Dinty Moore Stew
10. Sardines
11. Shrimp
12. Oysters
13. Anchovies
14. Kippered Herring
15. Crab Meat
16. Canned Mackerel
17. Deviled Ham
18. Pate
19. Potted Meat
20. Summer Sausage
21. Canned Meat Tamales
22. Meat Chili
23. Keystone Meats
24. Costco Meats
25. Freeze-dried meats
26. Freeze-dried meals (Mountain House)

Next, let’s examine non-perishable fruits as hurricane food.

28 Non-Perishable Fruits For Hurricane Preparedness

Most of us will purchase canned fruits if a hurricane is coming, but you can also get frozen or dehydrated fruit. I’m a fan of the dried ocean spray fruits you can get in a zip-lock-type bag, but they are pretty high in sugar. Canned peaches are also good and refreshing when it’s hot out, and I drink the juice after eating the peaches. Lets take a look at the list of fruits good as hurricane food.

Fruit

1. Apricots
2. Peaches
3. Mandarin Oranges
4. Mangos
5. Pears
6. Pineapple
7. Cherries
8. Mixed or Medley
9. Grapefruit
10. Apple and other fruit sauces
11. Blueberries
12. Pie Filling
13. Strawberries
14. Dried Banana Chips
15. Dried Mango
16. Dried Apples
17. Dried blueberries
18. Dried Apricots
19. Dried Coconut
20. Dates
21. Raisins
22. Dried Cranberries
23. Fruit Leathers
24. Dried peaches
25. Dried Pears
26. Dried Papaya
27. Dried Pineapple
28. Sun-dried tomatoes

28 Non-perishable Juice and Drinks

The cheapest drinks are powdered. If you decide to go this route, make sure you have enough water stored to make them. Below are some drink ideas to give you a head start on planning your Hurricane food list.

Juice

1. Canned Orange
2. Bottled Cranberry Juice
3. Cran Tropical
4. Hawaiian Sun Tropical
5. Tang Powdered Juice Mix
6. Country Time Lemonade (Powdered)
7. Bottled and Powdered Gatorade
8. Crystal Light Powder
9. Kool-Aid Powder
10. Ovaltine Powder
11. Hershey’s Chocolate Powder
12. Cocoa Powder
13. Powdered Malted Milk
14. Powdered Low-fat Milk
15. Milo Malted Beverage Powder
16. Freeze-dried Coffee
17. Tea Bags
18. Yerba Mate
19. Green Tea
20. Soda
21. Boxed Milk
22. Boxed Juice
23. Plastic Bottled Juices and Juice Mixes
24. Canned Emergency Water
25. Bouillon (Meat and vegetable stock cubes or powder)
26. Pedialyte
27. V-8 Vegetable Juice
28. Energy drinks like Monster and Redbull

17 Non-perishable Survival and Granola Bars

Granola or survival bars are the bread and butter of any hurricane food supply. They are pretty high in nutrition and calories and are ready to eat with zero preparation. Especially good as a snack or when on the move.

Survival & Granola Bars

1. SOS Survival Bars
2. Granola
3. Trail Mix
4. Datrex Emergency Ration Bars
5. Battles Bars (Mother of all bars)
6. Nature’s Valley Granola Bars
7. Kashi Bars
8. Kind Granola
9. Pure protein bars
10. Cliff Bars
11. Quest Protein Bars
12. Jacked Factory
13. Kind Bars
14. Power Bars
15. Level-1
16. TB12
17. HealthWise
18. Nutri Grain Fruit Bars
19. Candy Bars with nuts (Snickers, Payday)

High Energy Food: Shelf Stable & No Cook

During and after a hurricane you may be without power and the ability to cook indoors but you still have a lot of work to get done. First, prepping your house for the coming hurricane, and second clean-up after the hurricane has done its damage. Because you will be burning so many calories it’s a good idea to stockpile some high-energy emergency food. Let’s take a look at the list.

High Energy Food

1. Peanut Butter
2. Nuts and nut mixes
3. Nutrition-fortified protein, granola, and fruit bars
4. Honey
5. Survival Food Bars (SOS)
6. Coffee
7. High Sugar Foods like candy bars, chocolate candies, and suckers
8. Dark Chocolate

11 Non-Perishable Pre-packaged Dry Meals and Side Dishes

I’m partial to the Knorr pasta side dishes (very cheap) and instant ramen soup for dry-packaged meals. The ramen soups are a great base. You can add freeze-dried, canned, or fresh vegetables for a complete meal. These meals require boiled water, so it’s a good idea to have a butane stove or a backpacker’s stove and enough fuel to cook with. Nesbit tablets and alcohol stoves are better than nothing, but they put very little heat off and are inferior to the backpacker or Coleman-type camp stoves.

Dry Meals and Side Dishes

1. Ramen Soup Packets
2. Cup-a-noodle
3. Knorr Pasta Side Dishes
4. Instant Macaroni and cheese
5. Freeze-dried backpacker meals
   • Mountain House
   • Backpacker’s Pantry
6. Couscous
7. Instant rice meals and dishes (Uncle Ben’s Red Beans and Rice)
8. Instant Rice-A-Roni and Pasta Roni
9. Homemade dehydrated meals
10. Instant rice of all types
11. Tuna and Salmon in Retort Pouches

17 Non-Perishable Vegetables

As with fruit, you can purchase nonperishable vegetables canned, freeze-dried, or dehydrated. Here is a list of vegetables you might want to consider storing for a hurricane. I like canned corn the best because it’s so flexible. I usually eat fresh or frozen vegetables, so eating canned veg is a challenge.

Vegetables

1. Mixed Vegetables
2. Corn
3. Beans
4. Pumpkin
5. Artichoke Hearts
6. Olives
7. Capers
8. Peas
9. Carrots
10. Beets
11. Pickles
12. Hot or Mild Peppers
13. New Potatoes/ Potatoes
14. Spinach
15. Tomatoes (actually a fruit)
16. Sauerkraut
17. Zucchini

Perishable vegetables that don’t need refrigeration

• Fresh Garlic (Don’t store in plastic, and garlic will keep for a month unrefrigerated)
• Onions (store in a dark location, or they will sprout)
• Potatoes (Don’t store with onions)

7 Non-Perishable Meals

Like me, you like to cook with ingredients, but there are situations where eating out of a can or boiling water will better fit the emergency. For example, imagine using a chainsaw all day to cut up trees in your yard and then having to cook a meal from scratch on your gas grill. No thanks, Instead boil water on a backpacker stove or heat a can.

Shelf-stable Meals

1. Meals Ready To Eat (MRE), military ration in retort pouches, and there are civilian versions (My Patriot Supply, 4 Patriots, BePrepared)
2. Freeze-dried Backpacker Meals (Mountain House, Backpacker’s Pantry)
3. Chef Boyardee Beefaroni-Ready to Eat
4. Hormel type chili-Ready to eat
5. Dinty Moore type stews-Ready to eat
6. Canned Soups-Ready to eat
7. Professionally packaged survival kits (My Patriot Supply, 4 Patriots, Valley Food Storage, Mountain House, Readywise, Augason Farms,

Getting ready for a hurricane? Don’t forget about sanitation and hygiene.

Check out these Ready Squirrel Articles to get more information.

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Water

The Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests storing a minimum 1-Gallon of water per person for three days per person. If you live in the hotter climates prone to hurricanes, I recommend a minimum of 2 gallons of water per day per person, and I’d store at least a 14-day supply.

In Florida, hurricane season is from June 1 through November 30, and major storms can leave you without power and running water, with limited access to stores… be sure to store water in a space that is room temperature or cooler and away from any chemicals… think about dispersing bottles in different areas of your home. Stock up with a [bare] minimum of one gallon per person per day for three days (FEMA.)

Federal Emergency Management Agency/Water Boy, Inc Bradenton, FL

Water is more important than any other food item stored for a hurricane or natural disaster. Humans can survive weeks without food but only 3 or 4 days without drinking water.

Sources

Ready Squirrel How Much Food To Stockpile Per Person