Emergency Preparedness: How Preppers Stock Up on Food for a Crisis
Matthias Schmid
March 17, 2021
What exactly is a prepper? They stockpile food, don't they?
A prepper is someone who enjoys the conveniences of the 21st century but does not take them for granted. In German-speaking areas, we are spoiled and accustomed to having constant access to water, food, light, heating, and electricity. A prepper assumes that this luxury could quickly come to an end in an emergency situation and therefore prepares for various scenarios. The word itself originates from the English term "prepping" or from "to prepare", which means to prepare.
Although this emergency preparedness often includes a supply of water and food, it does not necessarily have to result in hoarding food and panic buying. Calculating one's own needs, carefully planning for emergencies, and consciously selecting food and equipment can, on the contrary, lead to a very mindful approach to food, the environment, and nature.
When a crisis occurs, a prepper is happy about their well-sorted supplies and does not rush to the supermarket with the crowds to clear the shelves - they are the exact opposite of a panic buyer. Prepping is about gradually selecting and stocking up on supplies in good times - just as our grandparents used to do.
Therefore, we do not see preppers as a term of abuse or as a topic that should be marginalized to the far-right - but rather as a lifestyle, to be mindful with the conveniences of modern times and to have a suitable 'Plan B' for every convenience. We even marketed our app as a prepper app before 2019. Since then, due to the expanded range of functions, we have switched to the name Pantry App.
An emergency supply? But I have a supermarket just around the corner!
A selection of groceries from the supermarket
In our modern world, a reliable supply of food, drinking water, and medicine is always ensured! Should I prepare like a prepper for an imaginary crisis? If I need something, I just drive to the supermarket.
Such statements are heard over and over again - what realistic scenarios could actually occur that one should prepare for?
Scenarios in which emergency preparedness makes sense
Natural disasters
Despite sophisticated modern warning or early warning systems, people repeatedly find themselves in emergency situations due to natural disasters. In the news, one occasionally sees images of floods and flooded basements, of people getting snowed in in the mountains, or being shaken by an earthquake. Depending on where you live, such scenarios can indeed be realistic.
Quickly going to the supermarket or pharmacy and getting food supplies is then not possible, and one must make do with what they or their neighbors have at home. People living in affected areas would be wise to prepare for emergencies by storing essential everyday items, food, water, and medications at home.
Earthquake
In Germany, the risk of an earthquake is relatively low, yet it should not be neglected, especially in Southern Germany. The map displays in red the areas with increased danger.
Red areas on the map have a relatively high earthquake risk, while the danger is lower in the blue zones. Source: G. Grünthal et al., Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ
Hazards arising from earthquakes include collapsed or at-risk buildings, destroyed roads and transport routes, damaged gas and electricity lines, as well as the mass panic that an earthquake can trigger.
Flood
Elbe flood, photo by LucyKaef on Pixabay
The dangers of flooding include basements that are temporarily inaccessible until the water is pumped out by the fire brigade, but also long-term damage to supplies, furniture, and masonry. The risk is especially high for buildings close to rivers - insurers have very precise data on risk assessment, it's best to inquire directly with them for your place of residence or use the Flood Check.
Snowdrifts
In Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, mountainous areas occasionally experience heavy snowfall and snowdrifts. These can lead to blocked roads and even cut off entire villages, isolating them from the outside world.
Severe weather
Severe weather and storms can uproot and snap trees, thereby blocking access roads or causing flooding due to heavy rain. You can get severe weather warnings directly from the Deutschen Wetterdienst. Severe weather warnings are reported quite frequently, although fortunately they often turn out to be less severe.
War and cyberattacks
The worst-case scenario is war. Fortunately, we have not experienced a war in German-speaking areas for 75 years, so the danger is relatively low. Nevertheless, the unrest in the Middle East, which is repeatedly reported in the news, could also affect us - at least in the form of cyberattacks, if an attacker specifically targets computer networks and factories, or even power plants directly.
Prolonged power outage
Candles as emergency lighting and a weak source of heat during a power outage for preppers. Credits for this image go to Festoon lights.
Over the past centuries, we as humans have become accustomed to the constant availability of a warm home, hot water from the tap, and light at the push of a button. A power outage lasting several hours can quickly disrupt this balance! At home, one can manage quite well with flashlights or candles for a short time. If it gets cold in the apartment during winter, one can make do with a thick blanket on the sofa.
During an extended widespread power outage, the cooling systems in the supermarket will also fail. The cash register systems and the electric locking system will no longer work either. Therefore, the supermarket will remain closed! Perhaps an ingenious supermarket operator will still sell food for cash. In the worst case, however, the supermarket may be sold out within a few hours due to panic buying and hoarding, or even looted. In such a crisis situation, a prepper would stay at home until the situation normalizes, and make do with the food supplies at home in the meantime.
Preparing for an escape from one's own apartment: The emergency bag
In certain situations concerning one's own home: during floods, earthquakes, or even fires. Then the food supplies in the pantry are useless. For such cases, many preppers prepare an emergency backpack with all sorts of useful contents, which is ready to grab in case of emergency and can be taken along when the house is no longer a safe place. This way, at least the next 1-2 days should not pose a problem. However, it is also important to ensure that the contents remain up-to-date - you can learn more in our blog article:
How does the Pantry App help you with emergency preparedness?
With our app, you get a tool for a proven method of emergency preparedness: private provisioning at home with food, beverages, and medications. Planning and tracking your supplies ensures a good overview, prevents you from buying too much, and ensures that no food has to be thrown away - instead, it can be exchanged as the expiration date approaches.
Once you have recorded which food items you have at home, the app takes over the calculation of key figures and provides you with an overview. The whole process works conveniently via a barcode scanner using your smartphone camera or even an external scanner.
Additionally, you can organize food items in storage locations. This way, you can always keep track of expiring or expired food and replace it in time. Especially for large supplies, this is a very useful feature!
Furthermore, the Pantry App supports you with a balanced diet. Having enough carbohydrates in the form of pasta is certainly a first step, but without a certain amount of protein and fat, it would be a rather unhealthy diet.
As the final and most important factor, the Pantry App determines how long your supplies will last! For this, you can enter the body measurements for each household member, from which the individual calorie needs are calculated. Alternatively, you can also enter your own value for the calorie requirement. Now, the energy content of all the food in your stock is matched with the energy needs of your household. This determines the number of days that the supply will last. The same is calculated for the liquid and water requirements.
This statistic is calculated in preparation mode (Prepper Mode) for each storage location and the total supplies
Suppose you want to provide for your family for ten days, as recommended by the government. If your supplies, for example, only last for nine days, as shown in the picture, you can read in the nutritional statistics below exactly which products you should still buy to achieve your goal: A balanced stockpile that is long-lasting and provides a certain level of security for some time! By the way, the example image lacks food items rich in fats and proteins - otherwise, the stockpile is too carbohydrate-heavy. On our blog, you can find an article on how to activate the Preparation Mode with the statistics in the app.
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🍂 Cozy Autumn Leftover Cooking – Comfort dishes made from what's available
When the rain taps on the window and the tea cup becomes a permanent guest, the most beautiful kitchen time of the year begins: autumn. And what could be a better match than stylish leftover cooking – dishes that are not only sustainable but also truly exciting.
Autumn leftover cooking means: use instead of waste, but with a touch of sophistication. Here are some more unusual ideas to turn leftovers into small culinary highlights.
🧀 1. Pumpkin Gnocchi from leftover roasted vegetables
Do you have some leftover roasted pumpkin or sweet potato from the day before? Perfect!
Mash the vegetables, mix them with some flour, salt, and grated Parmesan, shape them into small gnocchi, and briefly cook them in salted water until they float to the surface. Then toss them in sage butter and top with chopped walnuts.
→ Tastes like Italy, looks like fine dining – and it's all made from leftovers!
🥖 2. Rustic bread salad with grapes and goat cheese
Tear stale bread into pieces, toast in olive oil until golden brown.
Add a few grapes (wrinkled ones are especially sweet), arugula or lamb's lettuce, crumbled goat cheese, and roasted hazelnuts. Mix with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, honey, and mustard.
→ A fall twist on the classic Panzanella – sweet, salty, crunchy, perfect!
🧅 3. French onion tart with leftover vegetables and puff pastry
Got some leftover puff pastry in the fridge? Make a tart out of it!
Caramelize onions in butter, add some leftover vegetables (e.g., leeks, mushrooms, or spinach). Spread on the pastry, top with a dollop of sour cream or cream cheese, and bake until golden brown.
→ Wonderfully aromatic, especially with thyme or rosemary.
🍎 4. Apple Sourdough French Toast with Vanilla Rum Butter
A piece of stale sourdough bread is soaked in a mixture of milk, egg, vanilla, and a dash of rum, fried in a pan, and served with fried apple slices and a rum butter.
→ Luxurious, yet made entirely from leftovers – perfect for a Sunday breakfast in pajamas.
🥬 5. Risotto made from leftover vegetables with lemon and herb oil
Chop the vegetable scraps finely and cook with a handful of rice into a creamy risotto.
A dash of lemon juice and some leftover herbs (parsley, basil, arugula) blended with oil make a fresh herb oil as a topping.
→ The acidity of the lemon beautifully enhances the earthy autumnal notes.
☕️ Bonus Tip: Using leftovers in a dessert glass
A few spoons of leftover compote?
Some leftover cake or cookies?
Layer it all with yogurt or mascarpone in a glass – and you have an autumnal "trifle" that looks like it came straight from a café in Copenhagen.
🍁 Conclusion
Autumnal leftover cooking is not a last resort, but a playground for creativity. When you look at ingredients with open eyes – not as leftovers, but as opportunities – small, exquisite dishes full of soul and flavor emerge.
Why we never stop refining Smantry ✨
At Smantry, we don't believe in 'finished'.
An app that is meant to accompany people in their daily lives is never complete – it grows, changes, and evolves. Just like the people who use it. 💛
We regularly pay attention to every detail:
How does a click feel? Is the path to a function clear enough? Does the idea behind a new view come across intuitively?
Sometimes it's just tiny things that make the difference – a better-placed button, a simplified overview, or a sentence that suddenly becomes clearer.
What drives us is the idea that Smantry should feel easy, familiar, and meaningful.
We want you to open the app and feel: "Ah, this is exactly how it should work."
Of course, not everything always goes perfectly. But that's exactly the point: We take the time to listen, to observe, to reconsider. Every piece of feedback, every use case, every new idea helps us to understand a little better what really matters.
Smantry is not a rigid product for us – it's a living process. A collaborative project that grows step by step.
And every update, every small improvement is a sign that we are on the right track:
A path to an app that doesn't feel like technology, but like support.
Towards a daily life that becomes simpler. Towards clarity, structure – and maybe even a bit of ease. 🌿
We're staying on it.
Because we are convinced that good things take time – and that it's worth creating them with heart.
Your
Smantry-Team
🌱 Staying on track made easy: How to stay motivated to create order and avoid food waste
We all know it: Initially, the motivation is high! You finally want to get your kitchen organized, keep an eye on your supplies, and shop more consciously. But after a few weeks, everyday life creeps back in – and the good resolutions start to falter.
With Smantry we want to support you not only in getting started, but also in sticking with it in the long term. 💪✨
1. Be aware of why you are doing this
Order and sustainability are not short-term trends – they grant you freedom, time, and a good feeling. If you know why you want to keep your supplies in check or throw away less food, it becomes much easier to stay consistent.
👉 Tip: Write down your 'why' in the app note or as a reminder.
2. Set small, achievable goals
Nobody becomes an organizing pro overnight. Start small:
- Today I'm just organizing the spice rack.
- Check the fridge this week.
- On your next shopping trip, purposefully buy only what you really need.
Small steps lead to success – and success motivates!
3. Make it easy for yourself – with smart helpers
Smantry automatically reminds you of expiring products, helps you keep track of your inventory, and assists you with shopping. This way, you have to think less and can enjoy more.
👉 The less effort required, the easier it is to stick with it!
4. Celebrate your progress 🎉
Creating order or avoiding waste is a process, not a sprint. Regularly review what you have already accomplished – you may already see that you need to throw away less or that your supply is finally manageable. That's great!
5. Make it part of your routine
Schedule fixed 'Smantry moments': for example, briefly check the inventory on Sundays or update the shopping list before going shopping. Routines provide structure and make sustainable actions a matter of course.
💚 Conclusion:
Motivation is not a perpetual flame – but with the right tools and habits, you can reignite it time and again.
With Smantry, you have a smart companion by your side that helps you stay organized, consume more consciously, and incidentally do something good for yourself and the environment.
More clarity when shopping: How Open Food Facts and the Smantry app make nutrition transparent
Many foods look healthy at first glance – but what's really inside them? Are the nutritional values balanced? How processed is a product? And what impact does it have on our environment?
This is exactly where the Smantry-App comes in: It uses the globally open database Open Food Facts, to give you immediate clarity when scanning your items. But what's actually behind the colorful labels like Nutri-Score, NOVA or Eco-Score, that you encounter in the app?
Let's take a closer look at the background.
Open Food Facts: From the Idea to a Global Database
The journey began in 2012 with the founding of Open Food Facts – a non-profit organization that collects, analyzes, and makes food information freely accessible worldwide. The goal from the beginning was to provide consumers with scientifically substantiated information.
What started as a small project has now become a global platform with millions of products. And it is precisely this data that the Smantry-App uses to give you a clear overview directly on your smartphone.
An overview of the most important scores
1. Nutri-Score – how healthy is my product?
Since 2016, the Nutri-Score has been legally established in France – and it has quickly spread throughout Europe.
- A (green) means: very balanced.
- E (red) means: unbalanced, enjoy in moderation.
The rating is based on calories, sugar, salt, saturated fats – but also on positive factors such as fiber, protein, and the proportion of vegetables.
👉 So in the Smantry app, you can see at a glance whether a food item fits into your everyday life – or perhaps should be on the table less often.
2. NOVA-Score – how processed is it?
Not only the ingredients, but also the degree of processing plays a significant role for health. This is exactly what the NOVA-Score (integrated into Open Food Facts since 2018) shows you:
- 1 = unprocessed or minimally processed (e.g., fresh fruit, plain yogurt)
- 2 = ingredients such as vegetable oils, sugar, flour
- 3 = processed foods (e.g., bread, cheese, canned goods)
- 4 = highly processed products ("Ultra-Processed Food"), often with additives, flavors, and industrial processes
👉 With the Smantry app, you can instantly tell if a product is still 'close to nature' – or if it falls into the category of being highly processed.
3. Eco-Score (soon to be Green-Score) – how sustainable is my shopping?
Since 2019, Open Food Facts also includes an environmental assessment: the Eco-Score. It takes into account, among other things:
- CO₂ emissions from production and transportation,
- Packaging and recyclability,
- Origin and seasonal factors.
The rating is – similar to the Nutri-Score – from A (very eco-friendly) to E (less sustainable).
By 2025, this will become the Green-Score, which will take into account even more detailed data and thus provide you with even better guidance for sustainable consumption.
👉 For you in the Smantry app, this means: You can see not only whether a food is healthy for you, but also whether it is good for our planet.
What this means for you as a Smantry user
Currently, you can scan your products in the Smantry-App and view many details. The scores themselves are not yet integrated – but the integration is planned.
This means: Soon you will be able to see not only the nutritional values of a product but also how healthy, processed, or sustainable it is – all directly in your app.
Conclusion: Your Smart Nutrition Compass
The colorful labels are much more than pretty symbols. They are your quick compass in everyday life – whether you want to shop with health consciousness, reduce highly processed products, or pay attention to the environment.
With the Smantry-App you already have strong support for more transparency while shopping. And with the planned integration of the scores, it will become even more valuable – your smart nutritional compass for the future.