Emergency Food Storage Calculator: How Much Food to Store per Person
Plan a long-term food supply by calories: pounds of wheat, rice, oats, pasta, beans, milk powder, sugar, fats and salt for your household and months (scaled from the BYU one-year list), the buckets or #10 cans, shelf space, cost, freeze-dried comparison, and the water to cook it and drink.
How it works
calories = (adults + child % × children) × kcal per adult per day × days · staples = BYU one-year adult list (132 lb wheat, 65 lb rice, 29 lb oats, 21 lb pasta, 62 lb legumes, 60 lb nonfat dry milk, 70 lb sugar, 29 lb fats, 8 lb salt ≈ 818,000 kcal) × staple calories ÷ 818,000 · freeze-dried #10 cans = calories ÷ 2,400 · drinking water = 1 gal per person per day
A food reserve is sized in calories, not cans. The calculator multiplies the adults and children (each child counted as a share of an adult, 70% by default) by the daily calories and the number of days, after taking off any days your normal pantry already covers. You then choose how to hold those calories: cheap, dense staples you cook yourself, ready-to-eat freeze-dried meals that cost several times more but need little fuel or skill, or half of each. The staple mix follows the one-year adult list in BYU’s 2024 guide to longer-term food storage: wheat, white rice, rolled oats and pasta for most of the calories, beans and lentils for protein, nonfat dry milk, sugar or honey, oil, butter and peanut butter, and salt. That list provides about 818,000 kcal, roughly 2,240 kcal a day for a year, so the calculator scales every item by your calorie total. Grains, beans, sugar and milk keep 15–30+ years in sealed buckets or #10 cans; fats keep about a year and must be rotated. Container counts use typical fills (about 35 lb of wheat or 33 lb of rice per 5-gallon bucket with a mylar liner, 5.4 lb of rice per #10 can). Costs are rough 2026 US bulk prices plus packaging, and the water figures add FEMA’s gallon per person per day for drinking and sanitation, plus the water needed to cook the grains and beans and mix the milk.
Worked example
Two adults and two children under 12 for 3 months at 2,200 kcal per adult: adult-equivalents = 2 + 2 × 70% = 3.4; days = 3 × 30.44 = 91.3; calories = 3.4 × 2,200 × 91.3 = 683,018 kcal. That is 0.835 × the one-year adult list (818,295 kcal): about 110 lb of wheat, 54 lb of rice, 24 lb of oats, 18 lb of pasta, 52 lb of beans, 50 lb of milk powder, 58 lb of sugar, 24 lb of fats and 6.7 lb of salt, 397 lb in all, packed in 16 five-gallon buckets (about 16.6 ft³ of shelving) for roughly $778 including packaging. Drinking water for the same period is 365 gallons; cooking the grains and beans and mixing the milk needs about 133 gallons more.
Sources: BYU NDFS: An Approach to Longer-Term Food Storage (2024) · University of Georgia Extension: preparing an emergency food supply, long-term storage · Ready.gov: food · Ready.gov: build a kit (water 1 gallon per person per day)
Frequently asked questions
How much food should I store per person?
For a year, the BYU guide lists about 247 lb of grains, 62 lb of legumes, 60 lb of nonfat dry milk, 70 lb of sugar, 29 lb of fats and 8 lb of salt per adult, about 2,240 kcal a day. For shorter periods scale it down: roughly 40 lb of staples per adult per month. Ready.gov asks every household to keep at least several days of non-perishable food.
How long does long-term food storage last?
Sealed with oxygen absorbers and kept cool, wheat, white rice and sugar last 30 years or more, pasta about 25, beans 25, oats 20 and nonfat dry milk about 15. Oils, butter and peanut butter last about a year, so they need regular rotation. Heat is the biggest enemy.
Should I buy a freeze-dried kit instead?
Kits are convenient and light, but compare calories, not "servings": many one-month kits supply only 1,000–1,400 kcal a day. Price them per 1,000 kcal against staples. Many households use a staple base plus a few weeks of freeze-dried meals for speed and morale.
How many buckets do I need for a year of food?
One adult’s year of staples from the BYU list fills about 17 five-gallon buckets, plus bottles of oil and jars of peanut butter. Use the #10 can option if you prefer smaller containers that are easier to rotate.
How much water should I store with my food?
FEMA recommends one gallon per person per day for drinking and sanitation. Staples also need water to cook: grains absorb about twice their weight, beans about three times, and milk powder about ten times.
Related calculators
Emergency-planning figures based on FEMA, Red Cross, CDC and extension-service guidance. Local hazards, official evacuation orders and building codes take precedence — this is a planning aid, not a substitute for them.