Does Your Emergency Kit Include Milk?

Disclosure: This post brought to you by Milk Unleashed.

Did you know that only about 20 percent of Americans have an emergency kit and a family communications plan? I will admit, that before hearing that number- we did not. However, September is National Disaster Preparedness Month and the perfect time for me and you to get a kit ready!

Creating a kit was much easier than I thought. A simple Google search gave me a few lists of things to include in our kit. One thing I had no idea I could include in our kit was milk. My household goes through four gallons of milk a week. If something were to happen and we were to lose power, I would have no way to provide them with milk, which is a huge part of their diets- unless I used shelf safe milk!

I have seen shelf safe milk in the store many times, but thought the idea of it sounded kind of gross. Warm milk? No thank you. However, families with children should know that shelf safe milk is an excellent way to provide a nutritious, protein-packed beverage anytime, without worrying having to keep it cold. Shelf safe milk comes in tons of different flavors and is sold by many different brands, as you can see in the image below.

Before I agreed to add shelf stable milk to my kit I did a bit of research. I didn’t want to give my kids something that was packed with gross preservatives and to be honest, I thought it was fake milk. Milk Unleashed sent us a box filled with different flavors and brands of shelf stable milk and the experimenting began.

I was surprised to learn that shelf safe milk is Grade A real milk. It is flash heated at super high temperatures to eliminate any bacteria. Then it is packaged in a super special container called a Tetra Pak carton (like a juice box or carton of soup). Inside the Tetra Pak the milk will keep for six to nine months.

Now that I was comfortable offering my kids Shelf Stable milk, I had to make sure my kids liked it. I opened one and gave it to Emmitt and put the rest in the pantry. Before I could even snap a picture of him drinking it, it was gone! He was 100% sold and I even gave him the box not chilled.

We now use shelf stable milk in our emergency kit, for school lunches and for the gym day care program! It goes everywhere with us because there is no need to refrigerate.

You can check out Milk Unleashed for more information and tips.