How much food to stockpile for a family

By SGWNI. Checked on 2 November 2026.

Start with 3 days of food that doesn’t need a fridge or cooking, which is what the UK government’s Be Ready campaign asks for. For two adults and two children, that’s about 21,600 kcal at the planning figures we use. If you have the space and budget, 2 weeks is a sensible next step. It’s our suggestion, not an official target. Going further only makes sense if you’ll eat what you store before it goes out of date.

How many calories does a family need?

We use 2,000 kcal a day for an adult and 1,600 kcal for a child. These are planning figures, the same ones the Prep app starts with. They aren’t official or personal advice.

For comparison, the NHS gives 2,500 kcal a day for an average man and 2,000 for an average woman. The government’s 2016 dietary recommendations put children at about 1,000 to 1,100 kcal at age 2 to 3, 1,400 to 1,500 at age 4 to 6, and 1,700 to 1,800 at age 7 to 10. Teenagers move towards adult figures. SACN adds 191 kcal a day in the last three months of pregnancy, and 335 kcal in the first six months of breastfeeding.

Treat 2,000 and 1,600 as a starting point, and add more for anyone large, active, or doing heavy work.

What that looks like

This is two adults and two children, at 7,200 kcal a day:

Goal	Calories	As 400 g tins of baked beans	As dry white rice
3 days	21,600	58 tins	6 kg
2 weeks	100,800	269 tins	28 kg
1 month	216,000	575 tins	59 kg
3 months	648,000	1,724 tins	178 kg

Nobody should store 269 tins of beans. The table shows why calories matter more than the number of items. A 400 g tin of beans has about 376 kcal, while a 340 g jar of peanut butter has about 2,030. Calorie figures are estimates from USDA FoodData Central, for typical pack sizes.

A good stock mixes the two kinds of food:

Food you can eat cold: tins of meat, fish and beans, peanut butter, nuts, dried fruit, crackers and cereal bars. These are for when you can’t cook.
Food you need to cook: rice, pasta and oats. A 1 kg bag of rice has about 3,650 kcal and takes up very little room. These are for longer stocks, and they need water and a safe way to cook.

Our food stockpile calculator turns your household and goal into a real shopping list.

How long should you aim for?

Goal	Where it comes from
3 days	Be Ready, UK government
At least a week	Sweden’s civil defence agency
10 days	Germany’s civil protection agency
2 weeks	Our suggested next step

Three days is the only UK government figure. Longer stocks are a personal choice, and they aren’t something you’re expected to do.

You may be nearer than you think. In the government’s 2026 survey, 60% of people said they had non-perishable food that didn’t need cooking for about three days. When the question didn’t mention cooking, 85% had 3 or more days’ worth and 25% had 7 or more.

Count what you have before you buy anything.

Which is the limit: food or water?

Usually water. In the same survey, only 4% of people held 3 days’ worth at 3 litres a day. Extra food doesn’t help if you run out of water first, and rice and pasta use more of it. Work out your water at the same time.

What changes as you go longer

Up to 3 days: everything should be edible without cooking. Keep it where you normally keep food, and eat it as usual.

Up to 2 weeks: add staples you cook with anyway. Think about variety, because a week of the same tin gets hard to eat, and children may refuse it. A camping stove must only be used outdoors.

A month or more: storage and rotation become the main job. You’ll need a way of tracking dates, a dry place to keep sacks and tins, and a plan for using it all. This is where waste starts to creep in.

What holds people back

In the 2026 survey, 29% of people said they didn’t have enough money, 25% said products go out of date and get thrown away, and 18% said they didn’t have enough space. Each has a practical answer:

Money: buy one or two extra things on each shop. Be Ready suggests this, and our budget planner spreads a target over the weeks you choose.
Waste: store what you already eat, use the oldest first, and replace it. Check dates every six months.
Space: use high-calorie food, which takes up less room, and spread it around the home.

A note on special diets

Plan separately for babies, allergies, coeliac disease, diabetes and medical diets. Be Ready recommends ready-to-feed formula for babies. If someone has a medical diet, ask their care team what would be safe to store. A general calorie count can’t tell you that.