1 Week Emergency Food Supply for a Family of 4
Supply Plans · Targets follow FEMA and Ready.gov guidance · Prices checked July 2026
Quick answer
A family of 4 needs about 56,000 calories to cover one week, plus 28 gallons of water. The checklist below hits those targets with regular grocery store items for roughly $105 at current prices, and stores in about two large totes.
Targets: 2,000 calories and 1 gallon of water per person per day
Every combination has its own page, so the numbers are always exact and the link you share always shows the right plan.
56,000
Calories to cover
28 gal
Water
≈ $105
Est. cost, July 2026
2 totes
Storage space
The shopping checklist
| Item | Quantity for 4 | ≈ Calories | Lasts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grains and staples | ||||
| White rice | 5 lb | 8,250 | 4 to 5 yrs | |
| Rolled oats | 3 lb | 5,100 | 1 to 2 yrs | |
| Pasta | 3 lb | 5,100 | 2 to 3 yrs | |
| Crackers | 2 boxes | 3,200 | 6 to 9 mo | |
| Proteins | ||||
| Canned chicken | 6 cans | 1,400 | 2 to 5 yrs | |
| Canned tuna | 4 cans | 750 | 2 to 5 yrs | |
| Canned beans | 8 cans | 3,100 | 2 to 5 yrs | |
| Peanut butter | 2 large jars | 13,200 | 1 to 2 yrs | |
| Fruits and vegetables | ||||
| Canned vegetables | 10 cans | 1,500 | 2 to 5 yrs | |
| Canned fruit | 6 cans | 1,800 | 1 to 2 yrs | |
| Dried fruit and nuts | 2 lb | 5,000 | 6 to 12 mo | |
| Fats, dairy, and extras | ||||
| Cooking oil | 1 qt | 7,700 | 1 to 2 yrs | |
| Shelf stable milk | 4 qt | 2,400 | 6 to 12 mo | |
| Honey and sugar | 2 lb | 3,450 | Indefinite | |
| Salt, spices, coffee, cocoa | 1 set | 1,000 | Varies | |
| Water: 28 gallons total | ||||
| Bottled water, 24 packs | 4 cases | n/a | 2 yrs | |
| 5 gallon jugs | 3 jugs | n/a | 1 to 2 yrs | |
Totals land slightly above the 56,000 calorie target on purpose: quantities are rounded up, and appetite goes up in a real emergency. Swap freely inside each category to match what your family actually eats. to take it shopping. No email required.
In the app
Turn this list into your family's number
Add these items once and Provision Planner counts it for you: how many days you are covered, what expires when, and what to restock. About 2 minutes, and the free plan is enough to start.
See how many days you haveDays covered
7 days
Peanut butter, 2 large jars
+1.6 days
White rice, 5 lb
+1.0 days
Cooking oil, 1 qt
+1.0 days
1 week goal reached · 17 items tracked · expiry warnings on
A week is where the routine breaks
Seven days is long enough that people stop treating it as an adventure. Meals get repetitive, morale dips, and the small comforts start to matter more than the calories: coffee, something sweet, a hot meal if you can manage one. Plan for those deliberately rather than discovering their absence on day four.
It is also the point where a way to heat food earns its place. A camp stove and a couple of fuel canisters turn a week of cold tins into something a family will actually eat, and a hot meal does more for a stressed household than an extra thousand calories will.
Four is the size almost every published guideline is written for, which makes this the easiest plan to cross-check and the easiest one to build lazily. One-pot cooking becomes the default here: rice and beans, pasta and sauce, anything that scales by adding a cup. Children's tastes turn into a real constraint at this size, so let them pick some of it. Food a child refuses during a stressful week is not stored food.
What one week actually looks like
Day 2
AM Oatmeal with dried fruit and honey
Noon Tuna and crackers
PM Rice and beans with canned vegetables
Day 4
AM Peanut butter on crackers, canned fruit
Noon Chicken and rice bowl
PM Pasta with canned vegetables and oil
Day 6
AM Oatmeal with peanut butter
Noon Bean and vegetable stew
PM Chicken, pasta, and canned fruit
Frequently asked questions
Is 2,000 calories per person per day enough?
It is the standard planning baseline, and it is what this page uses: 56,000 calories total for 4 people over one week. Young children need less, teenagers and adults doing physical work need more. If your household skews either way, size up or down one step with the selector above, or let Provision Planner calculate it per person.
Why so much water?
One gallon per person per day is the FEMA minimum for drinking and basic hygiene, which is where the 28 gallons comes from. Plan for more in hot climates, for pregnant or nursing family members, and for pets. Water is the item families most often undershoot.
How do I keep all this from expiring?
Buy foods your family already eats, store the newest purchases at the back, and eat from the front. The Lasts column above shows how long each item keeps. Provision Planner tracks the dates for you and warns you before anything expires.
The list is the easy half. Knowing what you already have is the other one.
Most households own more of this than they think and still miss one thing that matters. Provision Planner counts what is in your cupboards against this plan and tells you the days you genuinely cover, and what to buy next.
See how many days you coverRelated plans
Go deeper: The 2-Week Emergency Food Supply List · Does Bottled Water Expire?
Calorie and water targets follow FEMA and Ready.gov emergency planning guidance. Cost estimate reflects typical U.S. grocery prices for July 2026 from our monthly price check. This is general planning guidance: adjust for allergies, medical needs, and what your household actually eats.