System 04 · Assess
Food that still feeds you
Store meals you can eat if the stove and the fridge both quit. Rotate them or they are decor.
Federal steps in this chapter do not change by state. Local orders for Arizona come from Arizona Department of Emergency Management.
9 min read · Updated October 2026
Days of food, not pounds of gadgets
Ready.gov asks for at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food, plus a manual can opener. Three days is the floor that matches the basic kit. A two-week home pantry is the practical aim, because stores empty, roads close, and appetites do not pause for a news cycle.
The Dietary Guidelines use about 2,000 calories a day as a general nutrition label reference, not as your personal prescription. Kids, teens, pregnancy, illness, and heavy work change the need. Use that figure only as a shelf-planning sketch: if four adults needed roughly that much for seven days, you are looking at a large pile of real meals, not a box of bars.
Favor food you already eat. A crisis is a bad time to discover that nobody will touch the “survival” tin. Include no-cook items for the hours when the stove is unsafe or out of fuel: nut butters, canned fish and beans, tortillas, fruit cups, shelf milk, crackers. Dried and freeze-dried meals save space and can keep a long time when they are packed dry and stored cool, but they spend the water you also stored. Count that water. Follow the package date. Home-dried food is only as safe as the process that made it.
- A manual can opener. Electric openers fail with the grid.
- Infant formula, if you need it, in the form the baby already tolerates. Ready.gov and CDC both say water and formula planning belongs in the kit. Do not dilute formula to stretch it.
- Special diets, allergies, and religious rules are part of the plan, not an extra.
- Pet food for the same number of days as the people. A hungry dog is not a detail.
Rotation and the outage clock
First in, first out. When you buy a can, put it behind the older one. Eat the older one this month. A marker date on the shelf beats a memory.
USDA’s rule of thumb for a power outage: a fridge keeps food cold for about 4 hours if the door stays shut. A full freezer holds about 48 hours, a half-full freezer about 24 hours, door shut. Food above 40°F for more than 2 hours (1 hour if the room is above 90°F) is in the danger zone. When in doubt, throw it out. Never taste food to test it. The outage-food sheet has the longer version.
From the den
Wolf Den Foods packs low-moisture meals for long storage because this system is the one a kitchen can actually practice on an ordinary Tuesday. Shelf life still depends on the package, the seal, and a cool, dry cupboard. No pouch beats a rotten plan. Build the water and the opener before you build a wall of food.
Food & water calculator
Counted in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Open it on its own page.
3 days is the go-bag / basic kit. 14 days is a home supply.
Ready.gov: in very hot temperatures, water needs can double.
Person 1: age 30, sex not selected, Sedentary. Weight blank lb. Height blank ft blank in. Days: 3. Hot climate: off. Package kcal: blank.
| Age | Sex | Activity | kcal/day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | — | Sedentary | not estimatedSex is required. |
Water: 3 gallons for 3 days at 1 gal/person/day.
Calorie estimates come from the federal table published with the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines. The 2025–2030 Guidelines say needs vary by age, sex, height, weight and activity and do not give one number for everyone.
This is a planning sketch, not a diet. Medical conditions, age, and heavy work change needs.
- CDC: at least 3 days, and a 2-week supply if possible. https://www.cdc.gov/water-emergency/about/how-to-create-and-store-an-emergency-water-supply.html
- Red Cross: 3 days for evacuation, 2 weeks at home. https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/survival-kit-supplies.html
- CDC: Consider storing more water than this for pregnant women, people who are sick, pets, or if you live in a hot climate. Ready.gov: Children, nursing mothers and sick people may need more water. https://www.ready.gov/water
- ASPCA kit list: At least seven days' worth of bottled water for each person and pet (store in a cool, dry place and replace every two months). https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/general-pet-care/disaster-preparedness
- Calorie table: https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf
- 2025–2030 Guidelines: https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA_508.pdf
Build your Wolf Den supply → https://plan.wolfdenfoods.com/
Add height and weight for everyone above to carry your household into the planner.
The Wolf Den Pack Planner is Wolf Den Foods' own tool. It estimates calories with the 2023 National Academies Estimated Energy Requirement equations (Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, 2023, https://doi.org/10.17226/26818) using each person's height and weight. This page uses the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines calorie table (reference-size people). Both are estimates and neither is a resting metabolic rate (BMR), so the totals can differ.
Checklist
Checks stay in this browser.
Sources
Public pages this chapter leans on. They win if anything here is out of date.
- Ready.gov — Food
Emergency food supply
- Ready.gov — Build a kit
Non-perishable food and a can opener
- USDA FSIS — Keep food safe during emergencies
A closed refrigerator keeps food safe for up to 4 hours.
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans
2,000-calorie label reference, not a personal diet
- Wolf Den Foods
The kitchen behind this manual