DIY Emergency Foods

If a natural disaster or terrorism forces you to evacuate your home, you will want to take emergency food with you. If a disaster causes you to stay in your home without running water or electricity for several days, you will need emergency meals. If an accident or breakdown strands you on the highway, you may need food in your car. Planning for these scenarios as part of a broader preparedness plan can help keep you and your family safe, no matter what situation arises.

Take-Along Food

• Prepare take-along emergency food in case you need to evacuate your home. Include a bag of nuts, a bag of dried fruit, several granola bars, several fruit bars, high-energy protein bars, salted crackers, chocolate bars, fruit rolls and several bottles of water. Take as much as you can carry comfortably along with the other supplies in your emergency kit.

Home Food

• Put together a stockpile of emergency food in your home in case you can't venture out for several days. This should include canned goods with pop-tops that can be eaten out of the can without cooking. Include a manual can opener in your supplies just in case. Beans, peas and canned fruits do not need to be cooked. Also include cans of refried beans, as well as pre-cooked sausages and other pre-cooked meats.

  Keep several packages of crackers and cookies in plastic bins to keep them fresh. Stockpile one box of granola bars and one box of fruit bars for each person who might become stranded in your home. Keep evaporated milk in cans, and include powdered protein mix, oatmeal and dry cereal. Stockpile at least two gallons of fresh water in jugs for each person who lives in your home, and more if you have a baby or toddler.

Car Food

• Keep a small amount of emergency food in your car. Weather emergencies such as floods or snowstorms could strand you in your vehicle for hours or even days. Keeping warm is important, and so is having a small amount of food to keep you alive and healthy waiting for help to arrive. Pack a small box, bag or coffee can with emergency car food.

  Include two bags of high-protein nuts, such as walnuts or pecans; several chocolate bars; five or six protein bars or granola bars; a small bag of raw granola; a tin of salted crackers; and a small bag of dried fruit, or several fruit roll-ups or fruit bars. Keep one gallon of water near the food. Don't store these in the trunk unless you can access the trunk from inside the car. When the water might freeze, and your biggest threat is snowstorms, substitute the water for several plastic cups. Collect snow to melt in the cups when stranded by a storm.