Food Storage Calculator
Plan a long-term food store: how many calories, and how much of each staple, to feed your household for a chosen number of months.
Your plan
This estimates the caloric backbone — long-life staples. Add fresh or preserved fruit, vegetables, canned goods and variety on top for nutrition and morale.
Your store
Total calories
—
≈ — total weight
How this calculator works
Long-term food storage has a century of practice behind it (used by the LDS Church, aid agencies and the military). The method: store a backbone of calorie-dense staples that keep for years, then supplement with what you grow and rotate. This tool allocates your calorie target across five staple groups using typical energy densities:
| Food group | Share of calories | Energy density |
|---|---|---|
| Grains (wheat, rice, oats, flour) | 55% | ~3,600 kcal/kg |
| Legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas) | 20% | ~3,400 kcal/kg |
| Fats & oils | 10% | ~8,800 kcal/kg |
| Sugar & sweeteners | 10% | ~3,900 kcal/kg |
| Milk powder | 5% | ~4,900 kcal/kg |
Plus a fixed ~0.5 kg of salt per person per month.
Caveats
- This is a minimum-calorie backbone, not a complete diet — it needs the vitamins, fibre and variety that garden produce and canned goods provide.
- Store water for cooking and rehydration (see the water estimator).
- Shelf life varies: properly stored grains/legumes (sealed, cool, dry, with oxygen absorbers) last 10–30 years; oils and milk powder are shorter-lived and need rotation.
- Rotate everything — first in, first out — and date your containers.