Food Storage

Getting Started - Meat and Beans

Example

Here is an example of my thought process in figuring my family's meat and beans group storage. With the chart in step two I calculate that my family requires 7665 ounce equivalents of meat and beans. Holy cow! A holy cow is what we are going to need to provide that many ounce equivalents! But we'll make it work with or without the cow.

So let's take a daily and weekly approach to our meat and beans group.

Meat (624 ounce equivalents = 8% of total)

20 lbs. of frozen chicken and beef = 1 ounce/person/week
63  5oz. cans tuna = 1 ounce/person/week

 

Eggs (600 ounce equivalents = 8% of total)

2 dozen fresh eggs = 2 eggs/person/week for 2 weeks
4 #10 cans Eggs Ova Easy = 2 eggs/person/week for 48 weeks

 

Dry Beans and Peas (4320 ounce equivalents = 56% of total)

360 lbs. dry beans = 2 ounce equivalents/person/day

 

Nuts and Seeds (2190 ounce equivalents = 28% of total)

32  40 oz. containers of peanut butter = 1 tablespoon/person/day

This gives my family a total of 7734 ounce equivalents. This is a good basic plan for the meat and beans group to help provide a well-balanced, nutritious diet that is pleasing to every member of the family. Note that the dry beans and peas subgroup contains the highest percentage of total ounce equivalents. Your storage should also contain a high percentage of dry beans and peas. Dry beans and peas store well and are high in nutrition and fiber.