Best Emergency Food Kits (Black Friday 2026): Freeze-Dried Buckets Compared

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the better windows each year for stocking up on shelf-stable food, and emergency food buckets are a frequent target of the sales. We checked prices on five widely available kits on November 11, 2026, ahead of Black Friday (November 27) and Cyber Monday (November 30). Below is what each kit actually includes, what it costs per serving, and where stock stood at the time we checked.

Quick picks

• Best value per serving: Augason Farms 30-Day 1-Person Emergency Food Supply Kit — about $0.94 per serving, though currently backordered.
• Best balance of calories and shelf life: ReadyWise 120 Serving Emergency Food Supply — about $2.75 per serving with a long maker-stated shelf life.
• Best for higher calories per pouch: Peak Refuel Basecamp 3.0 — 10,180 calories across 24 servings, the richest per-serving calorie count in this list.
• Best known brand, full-size pouches: Mountain House Classic Meal Assortment Bucket.

How to compare kits

Manufacturers set their own serving sizes, and they are not standardized across brands — a "serving" in one bucket may be a different weight or calorie count than a "serving" in another. Because of that, serving counts alone are not a reliable way to compare kits. We'd rather you look at two numbers: total calories and cost per serving (or, if you prefer, cost per 1,000 calories, which you can calculate yourself from the figures below).

Shelf life figures are the maker's own claims, not independent lab results we've verified. We've labeled them as such throughout this guide. Most freeze-dried meals also require you to add hot or cold water to rehydrate, so a food bucket is not a complete solution on its own — you'll also need stored water. We link to a guide on storing water below.

Where a brand didn't publish a total calorie count for a kit, we calculated one from the per-pouch or per-day figures the maker does list, and we've marked those as "calculated" rather than "maker" numbers.

Comparison table

The picks

Mountain House Classic Meal Assortment Bucket

This 12-pouch bucket (24 servings, two per pouch) is built around Mountain House's standard lineup of full meals. The company doesn't publish a total calorie figure for the bucket, so we calculated roughly 6,140 calories from the per-pouch values listed on the product page — that figure is calculated, not a maker total. Mountain House backs the bucket with what it calls a "30-Year Taste Guarantee," which is the company's own wording and claim. You'll need about 18 cups of water to prepare everything in the bucket, and the whole thing weighs about 5.52 lb. At $134.49 direct from Mountain House, that works out to $5.60 per serving. Sportsman's Warehouse had it listed at $134.99 at the time we checked, but it was out of stock there.

Check price at Sportsman's Warehouse ›

Peak Refuel Basecamp 3.0

Peak Refuel's Basecamp 3.0 bucket holds 12 pouches covering six meal varieties, two pouches each, and the company counts each half-pouch as one serving for a total of 24 servings. Where this kit stands out is calories: Peak Refuel states 10,180 total calories for the bucket, the highest maker-stated figure of anything in this comparison. At the sale price of $149.99 from Sportsman's Warehouse (regular price $165.99), that's $6.25 per serving — a bit more than Mountain House's bucket, but with meaningfully more calories packed in. Stock at the sale price was unclear at the time we checked, so confirm availability before counting on it. Buying direct from Peak Refuel means paying the full $165.99.

Check price at Sportsman's Warehouse ›

ReadyWise 120 Serving Emergency Food Supply

This is a step up in scale: 120 servings and a maker-stated 24,540 total calories, aimed at stretching across a longer outage or filling out a pantry for several people over a shorter one. ReadyWise states a shelf life of up to 25 years. You'll need roughly 120 cups of water to prepare the full kit, and it weighs about 20 lb. At $329.99 direct from ReadyWise, cost works out to $2.75 per serving — a middle-ground option between the cheaper bulk kits and the pricier full-meal buckets.

Check price at GunDeals ›

Augason Farms 30-Day 1-Person Emergency Food Supply Kit

At 194 servings and roughly 23 lb, this kit is built to cover one person for 30 days, and it comes out cheapest per serving by a wide margin: about $0.94 at $182.99 direct from Augason Farms. Augason states about 1,290 calories per day, which calculates out to roughly 38,700 calories across 30 days — that total is our calculation, not a maker figure. Shelf life is stated at up to 25 years. The trade-off here is the daily calorie figure itself, which is lower than what you'd get piecing together full meals from Mountain House or Peak Refuel, so factor that into how you plan to use it. One more thing to flag: this kit was backordered at the time we checked, with Augason Farms indicating it would ship again in December — worth watching if you want it in hand before Black Friday deals wrap up.

Check price at GunDeals ›

Mountain House 14 Day Emergency Food Supply

This 42-pouch, 84-serving bucket is Mountain House's two-week option, and the company states roughly 1,719 calories per day, which works out to about 24,066 calories over 14 days by our calculation. Mountain House claims a 30-year shelf life on this kit. It needs about 56 cups (3.5 gallons) of water to prepare everything and weighs about 15.62 lb. At the price we last saw it in stock, $457.99, cost per serving comes to $5.45 — in the same range as the smaller Classic Meal Assortment Bucket, since both are built around the same style of full-size pouches. The catch is availability: this kit was sold out at the time we checked, so the price above reflects what it was selling for before stock ran out, not a current listing.

Check price at GunDeals ›

Where to find the current deal

Prices and stock on food buckets tend to move fast around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and a few of the kits above were already low on stock or backordered when we checked on November 11. Rather than list prices here that may be outdated by the time you read this, we keep a running page of current markdowns at our daily deals page, which we update as sales go live.

If you're building out food storage more broadly, it's worth pairing a bucket like these with a wider pantry plan — see our guide to food storage basics for ideas on what to stock alongside a bucket so it actually gets used before it's needed. Since most of these kits require added water, also check how to store water at home the right way. And if you're assembling a smaller, grab-and-go kit rather than a long-term bucket, our 72-hour kit checklist covers what to pack and what to skip.

FAQ

How many calories a day should an emergency food kit have?

We're not going to give a specific number here, since that's a personal and household decision, not something we're positioned to advise on. What we'd suggest instead: compare the maker's stated daily or total calories against what your household typically eats in a day, and plan for extra servings if the kit's figures run lower than that. This isn't medical or nutritional advice — just a way to sanity-check a kit's numbers against your own household's needs.

Do freeze-dried kits really last 25-30 years?

The shelf-life figures in this guide — 25 years, 30 years, Mountain House's "30-Year Taste Guarantee" — are all claims made by the manufacturers, not numbers we've independently tested or verified. In general, these kits are sold with the expectation that they'll be stored in cool, dry conditions; heat, moisture, and damaged packaging can all shorten how long food actually stays usable, regardless of what's printed on the label.

Do I need water to use these?

Yes, for most of the kits in this comparison. Freeze-dried and dehydrated meals are rehydrated with hot or cold water, and the amounts add up — anywhere from about 18 cups for the smallest bucket here to roughly 120 cups for the ReadyWise 120-serving kit. Buying a food bucket without also planning for stored water leaves a gap, which is why we've linked to a water storage guide above.

Is a bucket better than buying pouches individually?

Buckets bundle a set assortment of meals at a per-serving price that's usually lower than buying the same pouches one at a time, which is the main appeal. The trade-off is you don't get to pick and choose flavors the way you would buying individual pouches, and if a particular meal in the assortment doesn't suit your household, you're stuck with it. If flexibility matters more to you than price, individual pouches might be worth the extra cost; if you're optimizing for calories per dollar and shelf space, a bucket like the ones above is generally the more efficient route.