James,
I wanted to share some info on food prep. I’m sure you know about Shelf Reliance but I wanted to mention them to you and their great resources. I am trying to start prepping food and found their site a few months back. Yesterday, I went to their site to try and figure out how much of what I will need and what it will cost.
They have some good tools and packages in there for general prep and emergencies. They also have some decent medical supplies and kits too. Under the “TOOLS” tab, you can use the THRIVE Planner to set up your family and food needs based on each person’s age and daily caloric intake needs. You can even specify what percentage of the package is ready-to-eat entrees (such as macaroni and cheese or linguine and meat sauce) and what percentage is freeze dried food. You can add in drink mixes and basic cooking items like salt and sugar and what not. You can even set what your monthly food prep budget is and set up a monthly program. Once I entered in my family needs and the duration of anticipated need, it auto-generated a plan consisting of a variety of grains, fruits, veggies, meats, dairy, and so forth. It will group everything by type and you can swap out items that you may not like or may be allergic to. I found this tool great for me since I don’t know as much about food storage and planning as I would like. They know their products and what a person needs and put the package together for you. It is also handy to be able to put in $200 per month for food and they will break the package up and set up a recurring monthly plan to get me everything and will show me how many months it will take at a given budget.
In addition to the food, they have food rotation storage systems, recipes to use with your prep food, emergency kit planners, and general emergency/prep information.
I was also enjoying browsing their emergency supplies which seem very extensive and include supplies for cats and dogs. I have already put together several kits for hurricanes and bugging out for my family and pets. – Ford M.