To stockpile 72 hours of supplies

[seriouslessness]

..in case of disaster or attack. A new preparedness strategy inspired by Nordic countries and Germany, who already do this.

Is this something you already do, or will do?

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/26/stockpile-supplies-72-hours-disasters-attack-eu-tells-citizens

Dang.
DS (uni break) audited my food cupboards last week, foolishly discarded out of date treasure in a Disgusted of Bristol manner.
Triumph was 2008 something and 2013 something else, he binned them.
We may regret that youthful foolishness.

<eyes up the rather large Koi in the fishpond>

It's a family joke that I have diligently stocked first, a Brexit Cupboard, which then became a Covid Cupboard, and has now been repurposed as a Putin Pantry. It contains a lot of pasta, pesto (all now approx 2 yrs past their sell-by date), teabags and chocolate oranges. All the essentials.

But then I grew up next to the sort of facility that, were it bombed by enemy forces, you'd want to be dead asap, and not worrying about sourcing olive oil.

I usually have a more than a few days worth of food in the house.
However, a relative was without power for 4 days last year shortly before christmas due to bad weather.
I know I have a torch on the phone but I have insisted we keep a torch in a specific place in case of any outage.
Of course, this does not imply shops are without power etc.

I've got my jars of home made Jam and chutney circa 2011 - labels now well faded so every meal would be a surprise......

thiswilloutme
You may need to scrape off the top layer of grey stuff when you open the jar.......speaking from childhood trauma experience

At the moment that’s me. I have in my fridge a yoghurt a can of cherry sugar free tango. Some milk and 2 slices left of a loaf. I do however have enough toilet roll for about 8 weeks 😂

It’s a very good idea!

My store cupboard and freezer are always full. It's not stockpiling, but something my mother always did, prior to online ordering and home delivery becoming a thing, and I just followed her example 'just in case'. If something unforeseen happens, then we have always got enough in store to feed us for at least a week. Old habits die hard.

I think they shouldn’t have used the word stockpiling in the article. It’s the wrong word for what they are advising.

@DazzlingCuckoos or if you have a bbq get some charcoal

One of the highest impact things which could happen would be a failure of the electricity network. The National Risk Register says a reasonable worst case scenario for that would be a week without power but since out sewage and water purification systems rely on electricity those would also go down. It doesn't need to be a major nuclear crisis for a few days without water to be feasible: National Risk Register 2025 - GOV.UK

I live alone so could start eating myself in a pinch 😊I've enough for a few days and a good few tins of things.

I don't stockpile, but if advised by Gov to do so I will, otherwise no.

I confess to having a spare month's supply of my vital medication, without which I'd get unwell very very quickly. I got a private prescription when away for a break and used that up so I have a month's in hand from my usual script.

My brother and his family was on holidays in spain last year when there was major flooding, they were staying in a village up a mountain, the flooding didn't actually really hit their area, (he said they had a slight bit of rain one day) and local radio and hire car company had warned them not to drive on a certain day, but below them in lower land areas there was a lot of flooding, however their power and surrounding village's power lines were all wiped out, water was contaminated, there were bodies in flood drains your not drinking from taps after that even if it looked clear, and it was out for more than 3 days , there was no internet, wifi and pretty well no banking , there was water brought into the area by army, some people were airlifted out, but it was couple of miles away to get the water tanks- roads were mostly impassable, but luckily local farmers could get some vehicles through to water, he said the one thing they were not short of was food, everyone was lighting fires and bbq and cooking everything fresh and just handing it out , some businesses couldn't get staff in or out and they were scrabbling around locally trying to find beds mattresses etc - kids thought it was brilliant cornflakes with fanta for breakfast , time off school as they couldn't get to airport, and when they wanted an ice cream the shop owner just gave them the whole 3 litre tub , but they didn't have candles for days as the shops and restaurants gave out what they had but there was no restocking

If things get bad, quite a few squirrels visit my garden.

'Lovely bit of squirrel' might become a reality.

How does one go about catching a squirrel though?

I think people are confused as to why 72 hours is quoted. It's a short enough time that people could afford to have that amount of supplies. It's long enough that the government could get water and supplies to you if they choose to do so.

This is the list of food in the leaflet from our government recommendations, if anyone is interested. Would be interesting to read other countries advise.

rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf

Exactly.

I can't imagine not having three days food in. I shop once a week, on a Saturday, so Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I always have at least 3 days of food in.

I also keep........
Frozen fish
dried pasta, lentils, rice, couscous
Tinned beans, fruit, fish
Bottled fruit, pickles
Waxed cheese
UHT milk
Wholemeal bread flour and dried yeast.

...so generally have a week's worth of store cupboard ingredients that we could eat if necessary. I have a log burner that I can cook on, and a year's fuel.

It wouldn't be Michelin starred but we wouldn't starve.

Didn’t Elvis use to eat fried squirrel? You should watch Alone on TV, they catch and eat squirrel all the time. Usually with an arrow I think. 😂

What the Geoff is blueberry and rosehip soup?

Most essential piece of advice is to keep cash on hand. After Hurricane Fiona in Canada electricity and communications were down for days and it had a huge effect on electronic payments. Nobody was using a card or phone to pay for anything for days. Also a battery radio, to get up to date info when communications are down.

I agree. The word 'stockpiling' takes on a hint of hysteria - just thinking of the Covid-years toilet roll stupidity.

Generally speaking, it's good planning be prepared for any sudden unexpected situation. My cupboard always has a supply of candles, matches, a wind-up radio, a wind-up torch, a new set of PJs (in case of emergency hospital admission), a new pack of knickers, spare sanitary stuff, etc. My mother taught me well. 😀 I have a friend who carries everything but the kitchen sink in their huge handbag - I'm sure they'd be able to pull out a defibrillator if needed.

They are more hot drinks than soup. Usually drunk during winter.

Lentils, pasta and eggs is all fine, but what if there is no electricity or gas?

Even making tea will be a problem.