LDS Food Storage Calculator
Be prepared, not worried. The classic year-supply staple math, scaled to your household · Grains, legumes, fats, sugars, milk, salt
Adults
Kids under 12
How far should it reach?
Your target · 4 people · Full year supply
1,585 lb
Dry staples
2,555,000
Calories
56 gal
Water stored
46 buckets
5-gal buckets
The traditional Home Production and Storage staple amounts, scaled to your household. Kids count at 0.7 of an adult share. Water stored is two weeks at 1 gallon per person per day; plan purification for the rest.
How to read the table
These are the long-term staples that store for decades when sealed well: grains, legumes, fats, sugars, powdered milk, and salt. They cover survival calories. Everyday meals come from the other layer, a three-month supply of the foods your family already eats, rotated through normal cooking, and that second list is the one most households never actually count.
If you are building the everyday layer first, start with the 3-month food supply list · real meals, real quantities.
The other half of the answer
That is the target. How many days do you actually have?
A year supply on paper and a year supply on shelves are different things. Provision Planner counts what you own against this exact goal: days covered, what expires when, and what to buy next, wheat buckets and freeze-dried cans included.
See how long my food storage will lastYour household of 4 and full year supply goal carry over. About 2 minutes.
Days covered
153 of 365
Live tracking · expiry warnings · barcode scan
Provision Planner
Be prepared, not worried.
Worry is not a plan. Knowing is: exactly how many days your family is covered, what expires next, and what to buy this month. That is the whole product.
Get my days coveredWhere these numbers come from
The staple amounts are the traditional Home Production and Storage targets that generations of families planned a year supply around. The original online calculator built on them is no longer published, so the math lives on here. Today's guidance frames home storage in layers: a 3-month supply of everyday food, drinking water, and longer-term staples, built gradually and without debt. The duration buttons above follow that same shape.
Provision Planner is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For a general-audience version of this tool, see the Food Storage Calculator.
The next questions, answered
How much wheat and grain does the LDS calculator recommend per person?
The traditional figure is 300 pounds of grains per adult per year, split across wheat, rice, oats, and pasta however your family actually eats. Children under 12 count at about 0.7 of an adult share, so a family of 2 adults and 2 children plans on roughly 1,020 pounds of grains for a full year.
What is the difference between a 3-month supply and longer-term storage?
Current guidance separates the two: a 3-month supply is the everyday food your family already eats, bought a little ahead and rotated through normal cooking. Longer-term storage is the sealed staples on this page, which keep for 20 to 30 years. This calculator sizes both; the staple table is the longer-term layer.
Where do families buy these staples?
Home storage centers sell pre-packed staples like wheat, rice, oats, beans, and powdered milk in sealed #10 cans at close to cost, and anyone can shop there. The same staples are available at bulk and warehouse stores; sealed storage and rotation matter more than where you bought the bag.
Is this the old church food storage calculator?
It uses the same math. The original church-era online calculator is no longer published, but its Home Production and Storage staple amounts live on here: grains 300 lb, legumes 60 lb, fats 25 lb, sugars 60 lb, powdered milk 16 lb, and salt 5 lb per adult per year, scaled to your household. Provision Planner is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
How much water should a year supply include?
Water is stored by the two-week rule, not by the year: 1 gallon per person per day for 14 days, so 56 gallons for a family of 4, plus a purification plan for anything longer. A year of water for one person would weigh over 3,000 pounds, which is why no guidance asks you to store it.