The following are just some of the food-stuffs you will want to hoard. When the grid goes down these items will not just save your family but they are all good trade items as well.

This is the best of prepper food lists (survival stockpiling of shelf-stable foods):

#1: Distilled water and seltzer water. Water isn't a food to hoard, but you certainly can't live without it, which is why water is #1 on the list. Distilled water is the most pure form of water. Get water now and make plans to get more water. Consider adding canned seltzer water to your pantry as well. Canned seltzer water lasts indefinitely, adds a fizzy pep to your water supply and even helps relieve constipation! Avoid seltzer if you have acid reflux.

•Want to know the #1 food to hoard? Skip to #6. Canned and dried meats. Set aside your rice and beans for now, because the best food to stock for crisis is meat (canned and dried). Meat is the best prepper protein and with so many options available from dried and dehydrated, freeze dried and canned, you have no excuses (other than if you are a vegetarian).

#2: Canned liquids. It's important to stock up on canned foods with high liquid content. Two excellent (and often overlooked) examples are canned pineapple juice and vegetable juice available on the bottom shelves of your grocery store. These foods will provide nutrition and hydration simultaneously.

Look also for evaporated milk, condensed milk, and canned coconut milk. Coconut milk will help you cook rice faster! Stewed tomatoes, and vegetable, beef or chicken stock can also help you cook rice without depleting your drinking water. It's also a great excuse to stock up on canned beer, which you can use to cook!

#3: Dehydrated powdered milk, whey and eggs. Milk does a body good (or so say the commercials) and we've come up with a list for preppers on the 12 reasons to stock powdered milk in your pantry. Indeed milk is a versatile food well worth stockpiling if you don't have a cow or a goat. Bob's Red Mill dehydrated milk lasts, pictured right, up to two years, and is an excellent natural creamer for coffee. Skip the non-dairy creamers made of hydrogenated oils and use powdered milk instead.

•Powdered Milk. Buy dehydrated powdered milk by the bucket (and save).

•Whey powder. You know that Little Miss Muffet ate her curds and whey, and so should you. In cheese making, curds are the thick part of the milk that's separated from the liquid when the milk turns sour. Whey is the watery part that's cloudy and yellowish. Whey is highly nutritious! Bob's Red Mill offers an all natural whey protein concentrate. Whey contains a high quality complete protein containing all of the essential amino acids required by the body for strength and muscle development. It is a great way of increasing protein intake without adding excessive carbohydrates and fat. It dissolves instantly so it ‘s great for making high protein shakes and smoothies. In survival times, mix it with dehydrated milk for an extra frothy and satisfying nutrient! So while this isn't the first thing that will fly off the shelves in the event of a crisis, it's one Happy Preppers should have on their list.

•Eggs and Powdered eggs. Ova Easy dehydrated eggs are 100% all-natural with no preservatives or chemicals. Look also to Harmony House for freeze dried egg powders or Honeyville Farms for powdered eggs in #10 cans. Eggs generally can last a long time and don't need to be refrigerated.

#4: Hard cheeses encased in wax. Waxed hard cheeses are not so easy to find, but they are available. Parmesan, swiss, sharp cheddar or Gouda encased in wax is a very “Gouda” thing to find! Wax prevents cheese from growing mold and bacteria, and it also keeps moisture in your cheese, so it can store for a very long time without refrigeration. Parmesan is a hard cheese, and in the powder form has a four month expiration date, but encased in wax it can last up to 25 years! Consider buying cheese wax and even a basic hard cheese kit to make your own delicious cheeses. Wax will keep hard cheeses moist during the aging process, and also prevent unwanted mold growth on your aging cheeses. Here's more about prepper cheese.
•Left is canned processed cheese from Bega!

#5: Protein bars and protein drinks (Whey Powder). Ideal for a bug out bag, food bars are compact nutrition and should be part of your everyday food storage. Sure, some food bars are a sort of cross between chocolate candy bars and vitamins, others more of a granola, but they are often high in protein. Food bars can provide a satisfaction for a morning meal or an addition to your other rations. Look for coconut bars too! Another food bar that often goes under the radar with Prepper's (but shouldn't) is Pemmican, pictured right, which contains complete protein and gives energy. Free of isolates, fructose, sugar and cholesterol, Pemmican is a concentrated food bar that offers quick energy.

#6: Canned & dehydrated meats. What's the #1 food to hoard? Well, the best prepper protein source is meat. Go for the jerky! If you had to stockpile just one kind of food you'd want to stockpile meat in cans. Go ahead and Tune-in to the tuna. Stack up on the Dak! Why? Because meats provide humans with around 90% of sustenance needed to survive; and 90% of plants are deadly to humans. Man must eat meat! When possible, look for grass-fed meats, like Yoder's brand. Canned salmon, canned sardines, canned mackerel and canned tuna are rich in necessary Omega 3 oils. Stock your refrigerator with meats too. Smoked salmon, sausages and hot dogs can last a long time in your refrigerator.

Store organic hot dogs and sausages, such as Applegate Farms Uncured Beef Hot Dogs, which are made from organic, grass-fed beef. Consume them first in a power failure.

#7: Coffee, tea, Ovaltine, Tang and bouillon. Coffee for survival purposes provides the primary benefit of increased mental alertness, but as a morale boost it's good too. Tea for survival is important too, and has been around for 5,000+ years for a reason! Water quality of our ancestors wasn't very good, so tea helped it taste better and boiling water killed bacteria. In an emergency situation, tea can help you hydrate quickly when you can't wait for the boiled water to cool. Caffeinated teas provide a burst of additional energy; while other teas can provide a calming and soothing effect, which you may need. Additionally, many kinds of tea have anti-cancer properties (polyphenols), and reduce the risk of blood clotting and even lowers cholesterol levels. Consider adding echinacea, peppermint and chamomile teas to help combat the common cold, naturally, too!  Tang is a prepper classic to enhance the water supply. Bouillon cubes are compressed stock. This salty essential will help you flavor soups, rices, ramen style noodles and gravies. Even if you don't use coffee, tea or bouillon in your regular diet, consider securing them for your Prepper's pantry for bartering!

#8: Oils. You can't cook much without oil! Buy oil small containers and look for the word “virgin” which means that they are the first press and have the most nutritive value.
•Organic shortening. Many preppers stock Crisco, which is definitely not organic,but really it's better to make a candle from Crisco than it is to eat the heart clogging stuff. Organic shortening is a good alternative to hydrogenated Crisco because it's made healthier and it lasts indefinitely. Try Nutiva or Spectrum brands of organic shortening.

•Coconut oil. Shortening usually has trans fats, so consider coconut oil as cooking lard to replace Crisco or other vegetable shortening, which is made of dangerous trans fats. Coconut oil is very heat stable, and because it's low to oxidize, it means that it won't go rancid as quickly as other oils. It can last up to two years, and it provides fast energy. Read more about storing coconut in your preps!

•Olive oil. Olive oil is an ideal oil, but can quickly go rancid, thought it may have a shelf life up to two years.

•Ghee. Gee, here's something to consider, Ghee! What's that? Ghee is butter that's been melted and simmered down until all the water has evaporated and the milk solids have settled at the bottom. It has a long shelf life.

•Butter. Pure Creamery Butter by Red Feather has a long shelf life. Pair it with B& Brown bread in a can!

•Lard. Surprisingly, new studies show lard is a healthful cooking fat! It's versatile too.

•Other oils. If possible, look for a NON-GMO corn oil, as 86% of corn has been genetically modified. Whatever oil you buy, be sure to buy them in small containers as the minute you open, they oxidate and begin deteriorating quickly. Avoid anything made with Soybean oil as 90% of soybean products are genetically modified or cross-contaminated. Here's how to make your own oils.

# 9: Whole wheat flour. In the category of flour, you could tock bread mix, such as Krusteaz or Bisquick. Wheat is a basic food product that's chock full of fiber, protein, vitamins and even minerals, like selenium.  If you stock white flour in your daily pantry, be sure to stock wheat flour in your Prepper's pantry because it has more nutritive value when it has the whole grain (bran, germ and endosperm). White flour has only the endosperm. Thankfully, “There is not currently, nor has there ever been, any genetically engineered wheat on the market, “according to the Non-GMO project, so stock up!

You may also need flour for thickening gravies, or coat and fry, such things as freshly caught fish. If you have whole wheat flour, you won't have to stock genetically modified corn starch, which is also used for thickening. Consider Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat flour because it comes wrapped in plastic, rather than a paper bag which is more susceptible to pest invasions. Ultimately, you should store whole wheat flour in your every day pantry. Your long term pantry should include whole grain wheat and you should have a grain mill.

•Read more about grains for survival.

#10: Cereals: Shredded Wheat, corn or rice. Stockpile whatever cereals your family eats oat, corn, rice, or wheat-based. We recommend Shredded wheat! The first edition of the Boy Scout Manual in 1911 highlights the best food for Boy Scouts is Shredded Wheat, “because it has all the muscle-building material in the whole wheat grain prepared in a digestible form, supplying all the strength needed for work or play.” If refrigeration isn't an issue, pack wheat germ, which has high levels of fiber and vitamin E to boost your immune systems. Wheat germ is the center of the seed. Packed with protein and fiber, wheat germ also has folate, magnesium, zinc, manganese, selenium and vitamin E. It's considered “nutrition in a crunch.” It's not really a meal, but one you can add to your hot cereal.

#11: Potato flour. Consider adding potato flour to your Prepper's Pantry. Potato flour is wonderful, gluten-free addition to your Prepper's Pantry to make breads, pancakes and waffles, and potato soups. It's also wonderful as a thickening agent, so you can avoid GMO cornstarch. Don't confuse it with potato starch, because potato flour is the entire potato (skin and all) dehydrated.

#12 Corn as a grain (dried). Did you know corn is both a grain and a vegetable? As a grain, corn is dried into flour to bake and make a variety of foods from cornbread to cornflakes. Corn as a grain is an essential prepper food and there are many kinds of dried corn.

•Cornmeal. Pioneers packed cornmeal as part of their provision list, a half a bushel!

•Popcorn. We wrote an entire article touting the benefits of storing Popcorn because it's a grain that can be ground into flour!

•Masa harina. Spanish for “dough,” masa is the flour of finely ground maize, hominy or corn. It's basically been dried, cooked, ground, soaked in lime and then dried again. It reconstitutes easily with warm water and salt to make corn tortillas. Masa harina is the dough flour for empanadas, papusas and tamales.

Look for organic brands, which will ensure you're not getting a dangerous genetically modified food products. While Masa Harina is a finely ground meal, corn grits is more versatile, hearty and nutritious basic food. Nothing satisfies like the savory experience of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free corn grits (also called polenta). For breakfast, you will love it with milk and honey. Grits left in a pot to cool become polenta. In this way, you can serve it for dinner with butter, cheese, marinara or gravy.  You can also purchase alkali-treated corn (actually dried maize kernels) known as hominy, which is largely popular in Southern and Mexican cuisine. Popular in the South, you can also find this product out West if you look for it in cans in the Mexican food isles. Hominy is high in calcium content.

#13: Corn as a vegetable. Corn as a vegetable is also an important pantry essential. (Corn is both a grain and a vegetable: the only difference is that as a grain it's dried before harvesting.) Buy organic corn in cans to help ensure it's not genetically modified as most corn is GMO. In stores, look for the “Non-GMO project verified” label to avoid buying genetically modified corn. Steer clear of GMO corn products by purchasing organic (shockingly, 86% of the world's corn is GMO).

There are many more items and we advise you to go on over to Happy Preppers and take a look.

While you are doing it think about how satisfied you will feel, when a crisis hits, knowing that you are prepared, have food and supplies enough to last for weeks and months if need be, while others will be standing in long lines, facing angry and panicked crowds.

Now go forth and hoard. It’s not a bad word when one does so with a purpose.