Skill · Eat what you store
A two-week pantry
Count meals, not vibes. Rotate what you cook on ordinary Tuesdays.
Federal steps in this chapter do not change by state. Local orders for Arizona come from Arizona Department of Emergency Management.
6 min read · Updated October 2026
Build it from the grocery you already buy
A two-week pantry is fourteen breakfasts, lunches, and dinners per person that survive a dark fridge. Ready.gov wants that food to be things your family will eat, with a manual can opener beside the cans. Add a little more for appetite and for a guest. Dried meals only count if the water to rehydrate them is also in the house.
Use a simple rotation: buy one extra of the shelf-stable foods you already like, eat the oldest, replace it. Dates go on the front of the shelf in marker. Once a season, pull anything past its date and use it in normal cooking if it is still good, or discard it. Cans that bulge, leak, or hiss are trash. USDA is plain about that. Do not taste them.
- No-cook shelf: nut butter, canned fish, beans, fruit cups, tortillas, crackers, shelf milk.
- Comfort shelf: coffee, tea, spices, a familiar sauce. People eat more when food tastes like home.
- Special shelf: formula, allergy-safe food, soft food for someone who needs it, pet food.
- Fuel shelf, if you cook on a camp stove: only outdoors, stable, never in the garage, and counted as a carbon-monoxide risk the same way a generator is.
How to
A two-week pantry is fourteen breakfasts, lunches, and dinners per person that survive a dark fridge. Ready.gov wants that food to be things your family will eat, with a manual can opener beside the cans. Dried meals only count if the water to rehydrate them is also in the house.
Step 1. Count the meals
Fourteen breakfasts, lunches, and dinners per person
Step 2. Buy what you eat
One extra of the shelf-stable foods you already like
Step 3. Date the shelf
Marker on the front
Step 4. Eat the oldest
Replace it when you use it
Step 5. Discard bad cans
Bulge, leak, or hiss. Do not taste them
Cans that bulge, leak, or hiss are trash. USDA is plain about that. Do not taste them.
Pantry sketch
Three eating occasions a day is a counting aid, not a menu. The gallon line is the same Ready.gov floor, before extra heat or dried-meal water. For age and sex calorie estimates, use the food and water calculator.
168meals to have on the shelf
56gallons of water at the floor
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 principles
- USDA FSIS — Food safety basics
When to discard damaged or warm food
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Label calorie reference for planning only