The Well-Stocked Emergency Pantry

Your Guide for Stocking Your Emergency Pantry

In the last few years, many of us have realized the importance of having a well-stocked pantry for our family and pets. In Sonoma County alone since 1997, we have weathered three significant fire years, power outages, floods, and COVID-19. In each of these situations, many of us have been reminded how important it is to have supplies on hand, so we are well prepared for emergencies.

Also having a well-stocked pantry cuts down on quick runs to the grocery store which helps the climate. It’s nice to be able to make a meal and know that you will have the ingredients on hand that you need. Our emergency food pantry list below will help you thrive during bad weather, power outages, and other unexpected things that happen in life. Because it’s always good to have a little control when weather, fire, power outages, or illness disrupt our lives. We will give you a starting list that covers water, food, pets, paper goods, supplements, and more so you know you have your bases covered.

Personalizing Your Emergency Pantry 

We would like you to consider some important details when stocking your pantry for everyday use and emergencies. It’s important to choose foods that your family will actually eat. Don’t buy items that your family wouldn’t normally eat, this cuts down on food waste. We encourage you to use a black permanent marker to write the pull dates for items where they will be visible. Also keep in mind that most foods are fine well past their suggested sell date, so you can give yourself some wiggle room.

Be sure to take into account special dietary needs, such as gluten or dairy-free, or allergies when stocking your pantry and adjust our suggested list accordingly. We will put your pets on our list too and don’t forget about prescription refills. Refilling any prescriptions or having each family member with enough prescription, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and supplements that they might need for a two-month stretch is important.

Miscellaneous Emergency Supplies

Other than the food, paper goods, prescriptions, supplements, and pet food there are some items that can make life easier in an emergency. If you are lucky to have a gas stove, be sure to keep some lighters on hand to light your stove. If you have an electric stove, buying a small propane camping stove to use outdoors in emergencies allows you to barbecue and cook most of your food. Keep in mind that you can use your outdoor gas grill as an oven, it’s our favorite way to make pizza! Also, have on hand, flashlights and battery-powered camping lanterns are a must.

Emergency Pantry Food Basics

• Canned fruits, and vegetables with a manual can opener
• Canned salmon, chicken, and tuna-you can whip up some easy skillet meals with any of these as an ingredient
• Quick oatmeal, filling an easy to prepare
• Pasta, rice, and whole grains
• Canned beans such as pinto, black garbanzo, or kidney beans for a base for a soup or to add to your skillet meals
• Canned tomatoes for stew, soups, and skillet meals
• Lentils and split peas-great protein source, filling, and great to add to soups or stews
• Vegetable, chicken, and beef broth, I prefer bullion in jars, but some people prefer cartons
• Potatoes-always a staple
• Onions
• Evaporated milk and powered milk-both can be used in a lot of recipes
• Boxed milk or oat, soy milk
• Dried fruit like cranberries, blueberries, apricots, raisins-all make a quick snack with nuts
• Nuts, such as almonds, cashews, and walnuts-I keep these in my freezer for baking and it keeps them fresh for a long time
• Salt, pepper, and spices
• Powered peanut butter-this organic wonder is available both at Costco and Amazon
• Protein bars
• Dry cereal and granola
• Crackers and pretzels
• Dried soup-I love Frontier’s quick soups, hardly any ingredients and about 15 minutes prep time and they fee up to 6 people
• Nut butter, jelly, or jam
• Baking staples such as sugar, flour, honey, oil, maple syrup, yeast, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and vinegar
• Basic comfort foods such as candy, cookies, instant pudding, coffee, tea, and powdered creamer

If you are lucky and don’t experience a power outage during emergencies you can also stock up on some staples that you can keep in your freezer and refrigerator:

• Eggs
• Butter-it can be frozen by the way
• Cheese
• Fruits and vegetables
• Yogurt
• Meat, chicken, or tofu
• Bread-it can be stored in the freezer and thawed as needed
• Pizza dough stores well and can be frozen-great for pizza and focaccia

Water & Beverages

Probably one of the most important items in your pantry will be water and beverages. You should keep enough on hand to last each person in your family at least a week. Be sure to keep some of your favorite beverages on hand also. Also, many times in emergencies water gets contaminated, so having a water purification pitcher at home can help so much in an emergency. The cost of water purification pitchers has come way down and can be purchased locally or on Amazon starting at about $30.

Pet Food & Paper Goods

Be sure to remember your pets when it comes to stocking enough food for an emergency. So this entails having dog and cat food on hand that would last at least 2 weeks, and kitty litter if your cat is an indoor cat.

We all learned last year how important it is to have some paper goods on hand. Remember to stock your pantry with paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, plastic bags-if you use them, plastic wrap, kitchen bags, garbage bags, paper plates, and plastic utensils-both of which come in handy during a power outage. Also, be sure to have enough of your personal products on hand to last at least 2 weeks if you can’t get to the store or deliveries have slowed.

So far it has been a quiet summer in Sonoma County, which I think we are all grateful for, but we still have at least 3 months or more of fire season ahead of us, so it’s good to be prepared. At our house, we keep a list of everything that is in our pantry inside the pantry door. When you are the person that uses the last of an item you put that item on the grocery list for the week-this makes it simple to keep your pantry up-to-date and stocked for cooking fun and emergencies!

Also, summer is a great time to clean out your house and have Crystal Clear Home do a deep clean of your home. Be sure to give us a call at 707-827-3316 fill out our free quote form and one of our cleaning specialists will be in touch promptly to answer your questions and provide a personalized quote.