In this video, I'm going to show you how
to build a complete 1-year food supply
for one person step-by-step. We're going
to calculate how much food you actually
need. We're going to go through the
specific foods I recommend and how much
of each to store, show you how to build
a supply gradually without spending all
the money at once, and then package and
store it so it can last for years. I'm
also going to open up food that I
packaged about 5 years ago, so we can
inspect the bags, the seals, and the
food itself. And by the end, you're
going to have a practical baseline that
you can adjust for your calorie needs
and the number of people in your
household. To make this even easier,
I've also created a free 1-year food
supply blueprint with the complete food
list, milestone shopping list, packaging
guidance, and an adjustable spreadsheet
that you can customize for your
household. I'll explain how to get these
free tools later in the video. Before we
begin, here's what we're going to cover.
If you want to jump to a specific
section, the timestamps are on the
screen and in the description section
below. First, we're going to define what
a 1-year supply actually means and
establish the calorie and nutritional
targets. Then, I'll give you the
complete food list and explain why each
category belongs in the plan. We're
going to break that large goal into
manageable milestones, talk about price
and where to shop, and look at realistic
storage options, even if you don't have
a dedicated room like this one. Then,
we're going to open up two of my older
buckets, package new food using two
different methods, cover the most common
mistakes, and finish with a simple test
that will tell you whether your food
supply can actually produce meals. But
before you buy a single bag of rice or
single bucket, you need to understand
the target that you're trying to reach.
What a 1-year food supply actually
means. When people say they want a year
of food, that can mean very different
things. A shelf full of cans, it might
look impressive, but appearances tell us
almost nothing about how long that food
is going to sustain someone. We need a
measurable starting point. And for this
video, our example is one average adult
eating 2,200 calories per day for 365
days. Multiply those together, and the
target is approximately 803,000
calories for the year. Now, that does
not mean 2,200 calories is the correct
number for every person. Someone who is
smaller, older, or relatively inactive,
they may need less. Someone who is
larger or performing sustained physical
labor, they may need considerably more.
And during a prolonged grid-down
emergency, you may be hauling water,
cutting wood, repairing property,
cooking without normal appliances, or
doing other work that burns far more
energy than your normal routine.
That is why the companion spreadsheet
that I'm going to provide to you will
allow you to change the daily calorie
target. We need one consistent number to
teach the method, so I'm using 2,200
calories here, but you should adjust it
for your circumstances. And the
calories, they're only the starting
point. It is possible to reach a calorie
target and still create a poor food
plan. A year of mostly sugar or mostly
rice, it might provide energy on paper,
but it would not give you the protein,
fat, micronutrients, variety, or meal
options needed for a sustainable diet.
The goal is not simply to store 803,000
calories. The goal is to build a
collection of foods that can provide you
those calories while performing the
different nutritional and practical jobs
that your body and household will
require.
Once you know the target, the next
decision is how the stored food will
function in your normal life. Choose
your pantry model.
There are three basic ways to approach a
food supply: a working pantry, a
long-term reserve, or a hybrid of the
two. Now, a working pantry is food that
you regularly eat and replace. You
purchase extra quantities of familiar
foods. You consume the oldest items
first, and then you continuously
replenish them. This is often the best
system for rotation because the food is
already part of your normal meals. It
also makes it easier to notice when your
preferences or dietary needs change. A
long-term reserve is closer to an
insurance policy. These are durable
staples packaged specifically for an
emergency and left largely untouched
until they are needed. Some households
prefer knowing that the food is sealed,
protected, and set aside even if they
don't regularly cook with every
ingredient. The third option is a hybrid
approach. You rotate food such as canned
meat, cooking oil, sauces, and other
shorter life products while maintaining
a protected reserve of properly packaged
dry staples. My own personal approach is
primarily a long-term reserve that's
climate controlled with some hybrid
rotation. But, please note that you do
not need something this advanced. What
we're going to demonstrate in this video
can be done in any home. Much of the
rice, wheat, and beans in this room is
not part of our everyday pantry. It is
stored as emergency insurance. But,
foods with shorter shelf lives, they
need to be monitored and rotated more
actively. I think a working pantry is an
excellent approach when a family can
maintain it consistently, but I'm not
going to tell you that there's only one
legitimate system. The right model is
the one that you can afford, organize,
and sustain without constantly losing
food to expiration or forgetting what
you have.
Whichever model that you choose, every
item in the plan needs to perform a
nutritional or practical job. And that
brings us to the foundation of the food
list. Establish the nutrition
foundation.
The first job is energy. In an
economical long-term plan, most calories
will usually come from grains, starches,
legumes, fats, and sweeteners. Foods
such as rice, wheat, oats, pasta,
cornmeal, and dry potatoes are useful
because they're calorie dense, they're
relatively affordable, they're familiar,
and they're capable of long storage when
they are packaged correctly. But, I
don't want this updated plan to depend
as heavily on wheat as my original plan
did when I did this video 5 years ago.
Wheat can be extremely useful,
especially if you already cook with it
and own a grinder. But, storing hundreds
of pounds of any one food creates
unnecessary dependence. The revised
approach I'm going to detail in this
video is going to distribute more of the
calorie base across several grains and
starches. And that gives a household
more meal options. It reduces food
fatigue, and it makes the plan more
adaptable if one ingredient becomes
difficult to use. Now, the second job is
protein. Beans, lentils, and split peas,
they are economical storage foods, and
they work well with grains. But, the
main example will not rely exclusively
on plant protein. We're also going to
account for foods such as canned
chicken, canned fish, powdered dairy,
and potentially powdered eggs. These
animal products, they generally cost
more and may require more active
rotation. But, they will improve meal
variety and make the plan more familiar
with an omnivorous household. Vegetarian
substitutions can be made, but they will
be treated as a separate variation
rather than changing the central example
for everyone. And the third job is fat.
And this is one of the categories that
people frequently underestimate. Fat is
extremely calorie dense, and it plays
essential roles in nutrition, cooking,
flavor, and making sure you feel full. A
plan may contain enormous amounts of
grain and still feel inadequate if it
does not include enough usable fat. The
challenge is that most fats do not store
as long as properly packaged dry grains
and beans. Cooking oils, shortening,
coconut oil, butter powder, nuts, and
similar products, they don't have the
same shelf life. The answer is not to
ignore fat. It is to store a realistic
amount and rotate it intentionally. The
remaining foods make the foundation
usable. Fruits and vegetables, they
support micronutrients and variety.
Powdered milk or alternatives, they add
nutrition and expand what you can cook.
Salt, it's essential. Sugar, honey,
leavening agents, spices, sauces, and
other meal-building ingredients, they
turn basic staples into food that people
are going to continue to eat. I also
recommend a modest layer of
easy-to-prepare, easy-to-chew, and
comfort foods. If someone becomes ill,
develops dental problems, or simply
lacks the energy or fuel to prepare a
complicated meal, a storage plan made
entirely of hard grains and dry beans
can become difficult to use. And that
does not mean we redesign the entire
plan around unusual circumstances. It
just means that we leave enough
flexibility that the food remains usable
when life does not go exactly as
expected. Every food in the plan should
answer at least one question. Does it
provide economical calories? Does it
provide protein or fat? Does it support
nutrition? Does it make other foods more
usable? Or does it solve a practical
preparation problem? If an item does
none of these things and your household
does not normally eat it, it probably
does not deserve much space in a 1-year
supply.
Now that we understand the jobs these
foods need to perform, we can now answer
the question that most people came here
for. Exactly what should you buy and how
much of each item do you need for one
person for 1 year?
The reconciled one-person food plan.
Okay, so here is the updated baseline
for one adult. The plan contains
approximately 835,000 calories. That is
slightly more than the 803,000 calorie
target, giving us a buffer of roughly 4%
Based on representative nutritional
values, it also averages approximately
74 g of protein and 70 g of fat per day.
These numbers, they are estimates.
Brands, varieties, can sizes, and
substitutions are going to change the
totals. And that is why the downloadable
spreadsheet allows you to adjust the
food and immediately see how the plan
changes. But this gives us a specific,
defensible place to begin. The important
difference from my original plan is that
we are not storing nearly a thousand
pounds of grain or relying on 400 pounds
of wheat. This version distributes the
food across more ingredients and gives
fats, protein, produce, and practical
meal building foods a much clearer role.
We're going to begin with the largest
category, grains and starches. The
updated plan uses 80 pounds of white
rice, 60 pounds of hard wheat, 40 pounds
of rolled oats, 35 pounds of dry pasta,
20 pounds of cornmeal, and 15 pounds of
dried potato flakes. That is 215 pounds
all together. Now, rice is inexpensive,
it's familiar, it's compact, and it's
easy to combine with beans, meat,
vegetables, and seasonings. Wheat is
extremely versatile if you have a
grinder and already know how to use it,
but I reduced it substantially from my
original plan. Oats give you a fast
breakfast food. Pasta provides familiar
meals and cooks faster than many whole
grains. Cornmeal and dried potatoes add
variety and they give you alternatives
when you do not want another bowl of
rice. And I don't need 80 pounds of rice
sitting on this table to explain this.
If I hold up a 50 lb bag, the on-screen
table can show that the annual baseline
is 80 pounds. The same principle applies
to every food in this section. The next
category is legumes. 30 pounds of pinto
beans, 15 pounds of black beans, 15
pounds of lentils, and 10 pounds of
split peas for a total of 70 pounds.
Obviously, this is not 70 pounds, but
I've got each of the items in small
quantity. Now, beans are inexpensive,
they provide protein and fiber, and they
combine well with grains. Lentils and
split peas, they're especially useful
because they generally cook faster than
many whole dry beans. And the variety it
also matters. If every legume in your
supply is the same bean, food fatigue
becomes a much bigger problem. The fat
layer is 4 gallons of liquid cooking
oil, plus 12 lb of coconut oil
shortening or another fat that your
household uses and can actually rotate.
And this is not a set it and forget it
25-year category. Fats are nutritionally
essential and they add a tremendous
number of calories, but they usually
have a much shorter shelf life than
properly packaged rice, wheat, or beans.
So, you want to store them in original
containers. You want to keep them cool
and dark. Watch for rancid odors or
flavors and rotate them as a part of
your normal pantry. For the conventional
omnivore example, I'm adding 15 lb of
non-fat powdered milk, 8 lb of whole egg
powder, and 104 cans of assorted
chicken, fish, or meat. And the canned
meat number, it sounds large until you
really break it down. It is two cans per
week. And these foods, they improve
protein quality, meal variety, and
familiarity, but they cost more than
rice and beans and they require more
active rotation. So, you want to buy can
sizes that your household can finish
after opening and select a mix that
you're actually going to eat. Powdered
milk, it supports drinking, baking,
cereals, sauces, and other meals. And
egg powder, it adds protein and expands
cooking options. If you don't use either
of these products, the downloadable plan
should allow you to replace it, but the
replacement still has to cover the
nutrition and calories that you removed.
For fruits and vegetables, the baseline
uses 180 standard can equivalents
divided across a variety of colors and
types. That works out to roughly one can
every 2 days, and most standard cans
contain more than one serving. This
category can be canned, it can be
dehydrated, it can be freeze-dried, or a
combination. Canned foods, they're
affordable and they include liquid, but
they're heavy and they take more room.
Dehydrated foods, they're compact, but
they require water. And freeze-dried
foods, they're light and they store
well, but they cost considerably more.
So, choose a mix that fits your budget,
water plan, storage space, and normal
diet. Don't buy 180 cans of the same
vegetable. Build variety and prioritize
foods that fit meals that you already
identified. The baseline includes 15 lb
of white sugar and 8 lb of honey. And
these are not the nutritional
foundation. They provide calories,
improve morale, they support baking and
food preparation, and they make other
ingredients easier to use. Then you want
to add the foods that turn ingredients
into meal. Approximately 8 lb of salt
for cooking and other household uses,
uh 2 lb of yeast, and 4 lb of baking
powder,
4 lb of baking soda. [snorts]
Then you want to get into bouillon.
You want to get into spices.
You want to get into sauces. And then
coffee or tea if you use them. And a
modest supply of comfort foods. Things
that are good to use if someone is sick
and it's just easy to cook, something
like ravioli or whatever works for you.
Now, the salt quantity is a storage and
cooking quantity, not a recommendation
to consume all of it during the year.
The same principle applies throughout
this category. Customize it around
actual recipes rather than accumulating
random condiments. I would also include
about 30 days of foods that require
little preparation and they're easy to
eat when someone is sick, exhausted, or
dealing with dental problems. And this
might include things like soup, instant
cereals, crackers, applesauce, meal
replacement products, or other foods
appropriate for your household. A daily
multivitamin can be a modest backup
layer, but it does not replace a varied
diet, and anyone with medical conditions
or medication concerns should discuss
supplements with a qualified health
professional. The baseline is not a
command to purchase every item exactly
as I listed it. It is a complete example
whose calories, protein, and fat work
together. If you remove 20 lb of wheat
because you don't eat wheat, replace its
calories and nutritional contribution
with rice, oats, pasta, potatoes, or
another food that you can store and
prepare. Don't remove a category and
assume the plan still works because the
remaining buckets look full. The final
calculation is approximately 835,000
calories before counting every sauce,
spice, or comfort food. That small
buffer, it's intentional. Packaging
loss, spills, damaged cans, inaccurate
serving estimates, and higher activity,
they can all consume a plan faster than
expected. Now, we need to make sure that
this list can become food that you will
actually eat. Customize a plan around
usable meals.
Take the baseline and write down 10 to
15 meals that your household can make
primarily from these foods that we've
covered. Rice and beans is one meal, and
it's not the entire strategy. You might
have oatmeal with powdered milk and
fruit, pasta with canned meat and sauce,
lentil soup, split pea soup, wheat
bread, cornmeal dishes, potato soup,
fried rice, or casseroles built from
stored ingredients. So, look for
ingredients that appear in several
meals. Those are strong storage foods.
Then, identify ingredients that you
dislike, you cannot digest, or do not
know how to prepare.
Test replacements in small quantities
before buying them in bulk. The
nutrition calculation comes first, but
the meal test tells you whether it's
something that you can live with and
actually eat.
Build it progressively.
Do not look at everything on this annual
list and assume that you need to
purchase everything this weekend. My
encouragement is to do this. Build it in
stages. Start off with 2 weeks, then
move to 1 month, go to 3 months, 6
months, and finally 1 year.
2 weeks is about 4% of the annual plan.
1 month is roughly about 8%. 3 months is
25%, 6 months is half, and 1 year is a
complete plan. So, at each stage, build
a balanced supply. Don't reach 3 months
of rice while still having only 3 days
of fats, protein, or meal building
foods. Complete a smaller balanced
milestone, test it, and then expand. And
you can build by paycheck, by food
category, or by retailer sale. And the
free spreadsheet that I'll provide, it's
going to calculate each milestone based
on your customized annual quantities.
Set the budget and shop strategically.
Separate the cost of the food from the
cost of the storage system. What do I
mean by that? Buckets, Mylar bags,
oxygen absorber, shelves, a scale, and a
grinder, those are infrastructure. And
most of those items, they don't have to
be purchased every time that you rotate
food. For the food itself, you want to
compare the price per pound or per
serving. Warehouse stores can be an
excellent option for rice, oats, oil,
sugar, honey, canned meat, and canned
produce.
Places like WinCo, Walmart, Costco,
restaurant supply stores, local mills,
and online suppliers, they may be
stronger for specific grains, beans,
powdered foods, or smaller quantities.
And the prices shown in this video are a
snapshot from the time of filming this
video. They're going to vary by region,
and they're going to change over time.
And the useful lesson is how to compare
values and divide the annual list into
purchases that you can afford. Choose
and organize the storage space.
The best conditions for storing your
food are places where it's cool, it's
dry, dark, it's stable, and it's
protected from pests and physical
damage. This room is held at
approximately 65° Fahrenheit, which is
excellent. But please do not assume that
you need something like this. For years
I had stored my food in a downstairs
closet in our home. And this cold
storage room is a new addition that I
recently built. An interior closet, a
pantry, under the bed space, cabinet, or
several smaller storage areas, those can
work. And you want to avoid direct
sunlight, moisture, extreme temperature
swings, and locations beside appliances
or other heat sources. Attics and
garages, they pose a major problem
because they experience extreme
temperature fluctuations. So keep
containers off bare concrete and arrange
them so the labels remain visible.
5-gallon buckets, they're practical, but
a full bucket, it can be heavy. So don't
build a system where reaching one
container requires repeatedly moving
five other buckets. Smaller internal
bags can make the food easier to access
without abandoning the protection of the
larger bucket.
Audit two older buckets.
These buckets were packaged
approximately five years ago, and the
labels tell me what is inside and when
it was sealed. And we're going to open
one grain and one legume so we can see
what actually happened during storage.
Now before opening them, I'm checking
the lid, bucket, and exterior label.
Inside I want to inspect the Mylar for
punctures or damage, examine the heat
seal, and see whether the package still
appears to have maintained a low oxygen
environment. After opening the bag, I'm
checking for moisture, insects, mold,
unusual appearance, and off odors.
Appearance alone, it cannot prove what
food is safe. If a package has moisture,
mold, infestation, a rancid smell, or
any other reason for concern, you want
to discard it rather than gambling with
it. Once I open a large package, I'm
going to transfer what I expect to use
soon into smaller airtight working
containers. Package new food two ways.
There are two practical methods I want
to demonstrate. The first is one
5-gallon Mylar liner inside a food-grade
bucket. This is efficient for a large
quantity of a staple that you already
know you're going to use. Now, the
second is several 1-gallon Mylar bags
inside the bucket. This costs more in
bags and it takes slightly more work,
but it creates smaller portions. When
you open one bag, the remaining bag
stays sealed. And before opening the
oxygen absorbers, have every bag filled,
labeled, and ready to seal. Once
absorbers are exposed to air, the clock
is running. Place the appropriate
absorber in each bag.
Remove excess air without contaminating
the seal area and heat seal the Mylar
above the zipper.
The zipper, it's useful after you open
the bag. It's not the long-term oxygen
barrier. You want to inspect the full
heat seal, label both the internal bag
and the exterior bucket, and then close
the gasketed lid. Five common storage
mistakes.
First, do not use oxygen absorbers with
every food. Sugar and salt, they do not
need them because they can become
extremely hard. Moist foods and high-fat
foods are not candidates for this dry
storage method. Second, do not use old
or compromised oxygen absorbers. These
are very old, about 3 or 4 years old. I
would not use these. Open only what you
can use promptly and immediately reseal
the unused absorbers in a truly airtight
container.
Third, do not deliberately undersize the
absorber. Bag volume, remaining air, and
the density of the food, they all
matter. Follow reliable guidance for the
product and food that you're packaging.
I'll provide a link to a spreadsheet
that details the O2 absorber size that
you need for the food items that you're
storing.
Fourth, do not seal across food dust,
wrinkles, or contamination. Leave enough
space to seal the bag above the food.
Clean the seam and inspect the entire
width of the seal.
Fifth, do not skip the label or the
rigid outer container. Mylar protects
against light and oxygen, but it can be
punctured. The bucket adds physical and
pest protection while the label makes
rotation and auditing possible.
Water and fuel reality check.
Dry staples they solve one problem while
creating another. They require water and
cooking fuel. Your water planet has to
include drinking, soaking, cooking, and
cleanup. Not only the water that you
drink from a glass. And soaking many
beans overnight can reduce cooking time,
but they still have to be cooked.
Lentils and split peas, they generally
cook faster. A pressure cooker can
reduce fuel use. And retained heat
methods such as a wonder bag or a
thermal cooker, they allow you to bring
a pot to temperature and then continue
cooking with far less ongoing heat. You
can put them in one of these options
here. Now, I know I'm not going to go
into the detail about this, but I want
to bring this to your attention because
it's a common question that comes up
when I do these videos. I have dedicated
videos that go much deeper into
emergency water and cooking fuel, and
I'll link to those below.
Rotation and open food.
You want to record the food, the
quantity, the package size, packed or
purchased date, rotation date, and
storage location. You want to label the
internal bag as well as the bucket so
the information stays with the food. At
least once a year, you want to inspect
for pest, moisture, package damage,
temperature problems, missing
categories, and changes in household
needs. Rotate oils, canned meats,
powdered dairy, egg products, and other
shorter life foods more actively than
properly packaged dry staples. If your
health, dental condition, allergies,
household size, or cooking capability
changes, update the plan. A food supply
is not finished merely because every
shelf is full.
The final 10 to 15 meal test.
Before you call the plan complete, ask
yourself whether you can make 10 to 15
repeatable meals primarily from what
you've stored. Will the household eat
them? Do they collectively provide
enough calories, protein, fat, and
supporting nutrition? Do you have the
water, the fuel, the equipment, the
seasoning, and skills to prepare them?
Then cook those meals before the
emergency. A spreadsheet, it can tell
you the math works. Only practice can
tell you whether the food works.
A 1-year food supply is not one enormous
shopping trip. It's a system. You want
to calculate the need, choose foods that
you can use, build a balanced supply in
stages, package it correctly, and then
test the meals before you depend on
them. I created a free 1-year food
supply blueprint that includes this
reconciled baseline, milestone shopping
list, packing guidance, and annual audit
checklist, and an adjustable
spreadsheet. Use the link below in the
description and comment section to
download it and customize a plan for
your household. This blueprint's going
to help you calculate and begin building
your own food supply. But food is only
one part of a complete preparedness
plan, and it has to work alongside
water, cooking, sanitation, power,
medical needs, and the rest of your
household systems. Start with a 2-week
milestone. Complete it, then test it,
and then build outward. If you have
questions or foods you think should be
considered, leave them in the comment
section below. As always, stay safe out
there.