I have a big family (household of 8/9) plus many auxiliary
family members in close geographic proximity.  One of my concerns has been that these family members have absolutely zero interest in food storage.  I know that if there is a problem, their plan is to just show up at my house.

That will upset my household food storage plan which is dependent on the number of people here (with some leeway of course) and it may be impossible if there is something like a quarantine for bird flu or anything else.  In addition, I have an emergency bag containing all important family papers, water filter, etc., and a plan to go to mother-in-laws house 1.5 hours west of here if there is a need to bug out (such as a nuclear accident at Indian Point).  I cannot show up at mother-in-laws house with 8 hungry mouths to feed and no food.

So, this last weekend, I prepared a number of emergency food storage buckets.  These are NOT part of my regular food storage plan.  Rather they are packed for a period of time say 3 years and will be taken back and redone at that time.  I have given these buckets to family members who refuse to do any food storage for themselves.  For example, my parents joke that have 3 days of food in their house.  In addition, I have given several buckets to my mother-in-law in case I ever need to go to her house for an emergency vacation.  Below is how I packed and what I packed.  I welcome your comments (as I will have to rotate these out in a few years), and you may share any of this information if you desire under my name of catskillmamala@yahoo.com

Here are pictures from my emergency buckets.  What’s missing are pictures of dividing white rice, oats, beans and flour from 6 gallon super-pails into small packages for inclusion in each bucket.  Please note, this is not a particularly low carbon exercise.

The buckets contain:
White rice
Flour
Oats
Spaghetti
Coffee or Tea
Freeze dried broccoli
Freeze dried carrots
Peanut butter
Dried fruit
Dried beans (lentil, kidney, garbanzo and black)
Sesame seeds
Yeast or baking powder
Powdered milk
Jello or pudding
Prunes

The buckets are mylar storage bags, packed within 6 gallon buckets with gamma or other good sealing lids, oxygen absorbers and a slice of bread for humidity.