There is another school of thought for short term and bug out bags. This school of thought goes that the most important thing for the short term is calories. . Basically fuel to keep you going. On the one hand it is nice to have ‘normal’ types of food. This more normal food typically requires cooking or at least warming up. If on the other hand you are on the run [which is more likely going to be the case] you will need things that you can consume as is, weather walking or driving without cooking nor heating.

Examples of such foods include Austin cheese crackers with peanut butter, at 1. 38 OZ with 190 calories per 6 cracker package which is one serving. 3 packages per ‘meal’, gives you 570 calories per meal. So you will need between 9 & 12 packages a day if this were the only food you had with you. At the time of this writing Wal-Mart had a bulk pack of 27 packages [or servings] for under $6.00.

Pop tarts [especially Strawberry] are great ;] each foil pack has 2 tarts. Each tart is 200 calories so each package from the store has six tarts and 1,200 calories. As of a few years ago watching a documentary about efficient companies in this episode Wal-Mart was the example. They have statistics on sales so they can send supplies which are in demand. They also monitor the weather and prior to hurricanes hitting they send extra pop tarts [strawberry] to the areas as those in high demand. Pop tarts would make a great desert item. Each package is $1.00 at Dollar Tree.

Cookies – Lance Lem-O lunch cookies for this example come 4 cookies per packet, 6 packets per package from the store. Each packet of 4 cookies is 150 calories. These would make a good desert item. Each package is $1.00 at Dollar Tree.

Dry roasted peanuts – salted, 7.5 OZ jars have ‘about 8’ servings of 1 oz each – so really 7 servings per jar. Each serving is 160 calories X 7 = 1,120. you would need 6 jars for your 3 day supply if this were the only food you had. Dollar Tree had this at $1.00 per jar.

Granola bars. In this example Quaker variety pack is discussed. There 8 bars / servings per box from the store. Each bar is about 100 calories. They make good desert bars.

Most kids will be mostly happy eating all this stuff.

Years ago one of the guys that I worked search and rescue with used nothing but saltine crackers as his food supply. Think back to the War of Northern Aggression, Yankees refer to this as the Civil War ;] back in those days “hard Tack” was a normal field ration. Of course most of those ‘kids’ knew how to hunt and forage wild food. Another guy carried kibbles N bits for his food.

Calorie count during a SHTF situation, your need for calories can go from a normal world need of 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day to over 6,000 a day. WHAT !?!? Six thousand calories a day!?… YUP! And even at 6,000 + calories a day you can lose weight. Soldiers, expedition mountain climbers, and walking to the North or South pole are some examples from contemporary life.