This index prices the emergency food kits we track the way a household actually spends them: per 2,000-calorie day. “Servings” can’t be compared across brands — one brand’s serving is 182 calories, another’s is over 400 — so we convert everything to the same unit: what one adult day of eating costs. The figures below are the dataset behind our reader article What a Serving Really Costs, published here in citable form for readers, writers, and researchers. Prices verified October 23, 2026. Refreshed quarterly.
Finding 1: servings are shrinking under the same label
Augason Farms’ Lunch and Dinner Variety Pail was listed at 113 servings and 22,940 calories in older listings. The same pail, under the same name, is listed today at 92 servings and 21,170 calories — 19% fewer servings and 8% fewer calories. Nothing on the label announces the change; only the totals moved.
Finding 2: the same kit carries two serving counts
Ready Hour’s 4-Week food supply is 250 servings on the maker’s own store and 284 servings in its Amazon listing, for the same kit name. A buyer comparing the two listings side by side is not comparing the same amount of food — and any cost-per-serving math built on the listing number inherits the gap.
Finding 3: a day of emergency food costs $8.57 to nearly $32 — and no brand prints that number
Among the kits with both a verified price and a published calorie total, one 2,000-calorie day runs from $8.57 (ReadyWise 72-Hour Kit) to under $32 (Peak Refuel Basecamp 3.0). Kit pages lead with servings and shelf life; the per-day cost — the number a household budget actually runs on — appears nowhere in the listings. One major brand can’t be priced per day at all from its own listing: Mountain House publishes no calorie total for its Essential Bucket, so there is nothing to divide by.
The dataset — prices verified October 23, 2026
| Kit | Price | Servings | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReadyWise 72-Hour Kit | $23.39 | 30 | 5,460 |
| Mountain House Essential Bucket | $129.99 | 22 (12 pouches) | Not published |
| Augason Farms Variety Pail | Out of stock | 92 | 21,170 |
| Peak Refuel Basecamp 3.0 | $159.95 | 24 | More than 10,000 |
| Ready Hour 4-Week Supply | Out of stock | 250 direct · 284 Amazon | 56,460 |
How to read this table: cost per 2,000-calorie day is the kit price divided by its calorie total, times 2,000. It can only be computed where a kit has both a verified price and a published calorie total — that’s why Mountain House (no published total) is excluded from the per-day ranking, and why the two out-of-stock kits carry no price: we list what a buyer could actually pay on the check date, and never estimate a price for a kit that isn’t selling.
Methodology
Prices were verified on October 23, 2026 against retailer listings, cross-checked on Keepa and camelcamelcamel; where listings disagreed, the maker’s own published figures govern servings and calories. Serving and calorie totals are each brand’s own published numbers, taken from the kit pages and pouch labels. Truly Preserved is a research desk: we work from published specs, verified prices, and aggregated owner feedback — we don’t taste-test, and no figure here comes from a sample or a sponsor. Truly Preserved earns affiliate commissions on some products it writes about; no commission changes a figure in this index.
Citing this index
Source: Truly Preserved Research Desk, “The Emergency Food Cost Index (October 2026),” trulypreserved.com/emergency-food-cost-index/ — prices verified October 23, 2026.
Writers and researchers are welcome to quote any figure here with attribution to the index. The reader-facing walk-through of the same dataset — including per-meal math and what owners say about these kits — is What a Serving Really Costs. More of our food-storage work lives on the Preserve the Pantry hub.
Refresh cadence: this index is rechecked quarterly. Next refresh: January 2027. Last updated: October 24, 2026.