Do we actually need to get two weeks of food in?

We've always had about a month's worth of dried goods and water. It's just sensible. It does stem from us living rural and being snowed in. But we lived in a town after that and had problems one year. It's because the chain is now 'just in time ' so supermarkets don't keep stock. Anyway regardless of world disasters its just sensible - what if the family were ill and couldn't go out. I feel a bit antsy if I don't have stocks!

I think you need to think again.

For those who have never had to think about this, it can be daunting.

But the idea is to have a few extras, that are shelf stable or frozen, of the kinds of foods you and your family normally eat. And an alternative way to cooking them if your power/gas were out.

So if you normally make your pasta and tomato sauce fully from scratch, add an extra couple of tins of tomatoes to your cupboard. But maybe also think about having 1 or 2 jars (as cheap or as high end/organic as works for your family and your budget) so that if the power is out, you still have something easy and quick to cook. The same with curry or chilli and rice.

Alternate sources of cooking could be a 1 ring camping stove (that you already have for camping/picnics - or autumn is a good time to pick up as stores try to get rid of camping gear to make space for ski gear (outdoor stores) or bicycles (eg Halfords). Or a gas BBQ in the garden - we use ours for all sorts and have used it when the power went out. A charcoal BBQ would also work but takes more effort and is less consistent in cooking…but if that’s what you have, it’s better than nothing. Do you have a small fire pit and could that be used safely?

And also think about what can make bland food taste better - herbs, spices, cooking in stock rather than plain water, having sauces that work for your family (ketchup, mayonnaise, secret sauce, chilli, Caribbean, bbq….).

What do you normally drink and do you have some bottled water for drinks? Could some squash and fizzy water work instead of normal pop?

Do you have a flask so any water you can heat can be kept hot (you might be able to get a kettle boiled in a neighbours house, or boil a large pot but only need 1 cup now but later on want washing up water)? Do you have some paper plates (even leftovers from kids parties) so you don’t need to do a lot of washing up?

Do you have a rainwater barrel in the back garden that you could use to fill a watering can or bucket to be able to flush toilets?

Do you have any power banks to recharge phones (eg for holidays)? Could you get into the habit of keeping them charged up, especially if bad weather is forecast?

It’s not about buying loads of things and having a massive stash - just thinking through how your family, in your location, would manage if the power went out for a few days or there was flooding or a lot of trees came down blocking you in…and having a few sensible things done to deal with those situations before they happen.

And if bad weather is actually forecast, I tend to try and get organised beforehand by charging my devices and powerbanks, getting laundry washed and dried, making sure I have 1 spare bottle of milk and some bread and fresh fruit/veg in the house, and also clearing away clutter on the main paths through the house to prevent trips and falls in low light conditions.

I think if you live in remote area this is more relevant. I used to live in a town with one steep road in one steep road out and with one food shop it would run out of milk/bread if it snowed (and not even that much), but only for a few days and it was the elderly that were more vulnerable. But I live in London and while we probably do have enough pasta/sauces/tinned tuna etc to last a very boring week, I don’t have the space to store that much more.

I should probably get some water in though as the only liquid stored in my house currently is alcohol or tonic water.

Supply chain disruption in the event of extreme weather. It’s not about reaching a supermarket, mine is 5 minutes walk away. It’s a good idea to have a couple of packs of dried pasta, some jars of pesto or similar, chopped tomatoes, rice, chickpeas/ lentils and some herbs and spices in to rustle up a quick meal anyway, in case you haven’t had time to shop. I always have onions, carrots and potatoes in plus fresh garlic, usually chillies, peppers and other things like couscous. Freezer has meat which I’ve split up from large family packs now there’s only 2 of us here. Canned soup is another stand by though I don’t like it.

they aren’t suggesting a full on preppers store just to keep in long life products so if a poor forecast happens the shops aren’t stripped of every pack of spaghetti!

Rubbish meals are better than no meals. But with a tiny bit of extra thought you can have much nicer meals.

We live on an Island (a big one, but still) which only needs a day or so of heavy winds before some things start running low in the shops.

Same here. We luckily timed our normal purchase of Costco toilet paper in February 2020 and didn't have to think about again while May or June while the rest of the country lost their minds over it.

We mostly stayed away from the shops apart from milk and some bread and veg and instead used up what we had in.

But somehow the shortages were our fault even though we'd bought barely anything in weeks.

The question you should be asking yourself OP is why wouldn't you have a few spare supplies in, in case you're affected by 101 possible issues? Assuming you're not one of the minority who doesn't have any spare money at all and lives in a very small property such that you can't store anything spare.

@HedgerowDI will buy some extra tins, water etc, but I can’t handle meal planning!

Just look after yourself by ensuring a small stock of food and some bottled water. I'm used to not being able to access shops for days at a time and it just takes a bit of planning.

I think all they're suggesting is that if (as a previous poster says they do) you use the supermarket as your store cupboard, you don't do that.

So if you normally keep one tin of tomatoes in, make it 3 tins. If you normally run down a pat of butter, keep a spare in. If you normally just buy a bag of pasta every week, buy what you use and an extra one so that you rotate through them. Etc etc.

Basically think how you'd manage if you had a) a few days where the supermarket supply chain was down and/or b) no electricity. B is a lot more difficult for me - I would be having a basically pretty miserable time because all my proper cooking stuff is electric only. If you can, have a method of cooking that doesn't rely on mains electricity - I have a crappy old camping stove and would bug out to a relative who has gas and a generator if I could manage it.

The final thing to remember is that quite a lot of places now rely on pumped water so if your neighbourhood (rather than your house) had a power cut, you may also find your water goes. So it's worth having a few 5L bottles. (And probably putting a chunk in the bath when there's a storm, especially if you're rural and prone to power cuts.) I don't worry too much about this one because a) my water isn't pumped and b) I'm very urban, so my area is prioritised if there are power cuts. I would having a rough time if we ended up in a full grid blackout where it took days to get things back up and running and the water treatment plants went down, but that's unlikely enough that I don't spend much time worrying about it. I have a few litres of water in, and would manage on that, what was in the fridge (milk etc), and things like cider. Probably be a bit dehydrated, but tbh a full grid blackout would be another scenario where I would be going to the relative with the generator!

No we don't need to get two weeks of food. Or even a supply of water. What have the government actually said about this - nothing concrete whatsoever.

Absolutely not, people make it too complicated. Cold baked beans or spaghetti hoops, crackers, cold rice pudding, it doesn't really matter does it. Just a few days of stuff to keep you from being hungry. And most importantly some water.

The point is that supermarkets might be closed for an indefinite period because of power outages, road closures and crop failures. We are heading for a crisis and the infrastructure is not there to deal with it. The government are finally admitting as much.

For a few days though does it actually matter if the meals are rubbish?

Doesn’t a lot depend on where you live?

We had a large tree down that blocked one end of the road but the other end with the high street was fine. No issues with getting food.

Another issue that might stop you from getting to the shop: a tree might have fallen down on your car and wrecked it.

It was so bad when we didn’t have electricity that those people lucky enough to have power back were running an extension cord out of their house with a powerboard attached and a sign telling people to feel free to charge their mobile phones.

Yeah, the issue is that the supermarket wouldn't necessarily be available to you during disruption. If it was about utility supplies, they might not be able to open in the first place, and if it was to do with food chain disruption you'll then have to consider all the people who also didn't plan ahead and want to do what you're suggesting here. Some of them will get there before you and may perhaps buy more than they need.

I think it's wise just to have some bits in, so you can keep fed and watered during any disruption. Bottled water, shelf stable stuff. Candles and torch in case of a power cut, which you probably have anyway. Nothing too ambitious.

Most supermarkets only contain 3-4 days worth of most food items, so in the even that there were supply disruptions, that food would disappear quite quickly. It's not about stocking up massively, just knowing that should something occur, you still can look after yourself for a few days, without having to resort to buying whatever you can find.

Do you remember the great storm in 1987? I lived in rural south England at the time. The power was off for 4 days. The roads into our closest town were all blocked, so food lorries couldn't get in. There was an immediate run on milk, bread, meat etc.

There were millions of trees down across roads & railways all over the country. I remember them using shire horses to drag fallen trees out of the way because there weren't enough heavy tractor units to go around.

It took some shops ten days to restock properly.

With a bad El Nino forecast, I imagine that is the sort of thing that they are considering.

Lists of stuff might be a helpful starting point, but people need to think in terms of meals, not ingredients.

How would you eat the beans if there is no bread for toast and no baking potatoes? Get in some frozen oven chips and freeze a loaf of bread. (Beware frozen food will start to go off in about 3 days if the electricity is out).

What are you going to cook with the rice or pasta? Maybe the lentils and tinned tomatoes? Do you have all the herbs and spices, and the skill, to make a lentil curry or pasta sauce?

Create or get hold of a few recipes that only use dried and tinned ingredients (not frozen) and then shop what you need for about six of those evening meals and six lunches.

Then add some big bottles of water, and some toiletries.

Next step is rotation: When I buy beans, I put them at the back behind the tins I already have.
Your stores are not a once-and-done stockpile that you put away and forget about, they need to be an integral part of how you run your home: eat what you store and store what you eat.

I always have a stash of cash, it's a throwback to when I first moved here, and we were beset by power cuts.

You’ve obviously never been through weather disasters. Come to Australia for a summer. You’ll probably experience one. There’s so many issues with thinking that a supermarket five minutes away will be accessible and be stocked. In an emergency you won’t be popping anywhere. A few issues that make it a problem: blocked roads from flooding or downed trees or fallen powerlines so neither the staff or you can get there, no electricity to run the shop and registers, no telecommunication access for card payments to be processed, everyone will have already been and cleared out everything and no further stock able to be delivered for days so you miss out, or the weather remains too dangerous to go out anywhere. Do you keep cash on hand for if there’s a phone or power outage and you can’t pay by card?

Keeping a decent amount of shelf stable non-perishable food on hand is normal for me. We could survive for a while. Longer if there was electricity keeping the fridge and freezer cold and the food in there was good. Where I live had a very bad flood a number of years ago. We had no electricity for nearly 4 days. The entire contents of our fridge and freezer had to be thrown away. We cooked using a portable butane gas hotplate. Food was kept cool in an esky with bags of party ice. Bags of party ice were strictly limited to two bags per customer per day, with police on hand to enforce it. We used cash to pay.

Other things like having rechargeable or battery operated torches and lanterns on hand is very normal for me. A bag of 100 tea light candles is a cheap source of light too. I keep them on hand. Battery operated radio to hear important news and weather updates. Portable charger/powerbank to recharge each mobile phone.

Take it seriously. Buy some extra food.

Keep some drinking water on hand. Either buy it or get a big water container from a camping or outdoors shop and fill it with your normal drinking water when the weather forecast gets bad.

Don’t forget about your pets too. Extra pet food that doesn’t need refrigeration. Food and water bowls if you need to evacuate. Leashes or cages.

Here’s my government’s emergency preparedness website for ideas of what can be useful in a weather disaster.
https://www.getready.qld.gov.au

The government hasn't said 2 weeks, it advises a few days worth of food and water.

We have issues with our water supply here at times and when it goes off the shops get emptied. It then can take 24 hours for them to deliver bottled water. It's for situations like this.

There is concerns that Russian hacking could impact supply chains, the electricity grid etc. Operation Albiston Shawdow is happening next year so there is a public campaign happening for that.

Loads of MNers will tell you not to bother, that it's pointless etc. But if something were to happen the government is giving you a heads up that it will take a few days to get some kind of temporary supply chain put on place. If the worst were to happen do you want to be out during looting and violence because you have nothing in the house?