A picture of my pack, the green bag and the new blue one are close to the same size, but they show you the dimensions of what you are working with, and what I had to lift.

The biggest contributor to your pack weight will be of course, unfortunately food.

Cans will add up the pounds very fast and as it is the main form of food storage. Aluminum is the most common material to house food and often times if you have no place to cook then you will not be able to easily get things like microwave dinners that may be lighter but without equipment won’t provide what is needed. Things in glass will often be at risk without some packing technique involved.

Campers may have a bit more luck keeping things from breaking at camp but the trade off will be the security of such items, because of some other people see some food or expensive items out you may as well sign it goodbye as someone else will steal it.

Food banks when you go will often fill our bags to the gills so make sure not only do you get food but you get a power lift workout which you need sometime after so many calories. Hauling it in a car will take some muscle and hauling back to wherever you live in a forest or thicket of blackberry vines.

What will be some of the things eaten going from the homeless population.

Cereal – Whether in bags or boxes this will be away a good number of the homeless get some form of nutrition it is easy, often light and needs no cooking with a variety of flavors to keep from getting boring or maddening.

Premade meals – Despite microwave meals being out of play for a lot what is made but the supermarket deli’s and boxed up kept cold in the refrigerated case will be something that will not be common, but it will be enough to give some difference and sometimes more protein. That can be rare in cases because most of the protein sources will be hard to carry without refrigeration.

Chili and soups – Despite being in cans this can be either something that gives a meal right out of the can as long as it isn’t one that needs dilution. One of the things that can provide vegetables when you are out in the rain.

Sandwiches – Something you can make to give you a couple days because food fatigue will make you go even madder after a period, ask anyone who has had to eat the same thing for months, it can make you do anything to get something new. Pb and J or hand and cheese, tuna with green onion was a favorite of mine.

Wraps is another thing that can be tossed in under the sandwich rule despite what I feel in them holding all the fillings better. They also follow a couple other rules really in both cases you will want to follow these rules

No produce is going to be on it if it will be held for a while. This is about time and when you have a bunch of things that could be sitting in a plastic bag for a few hours at minimum and a couple days tops there is a lot of things that wont work including most greens. Onion isn’t the worst and neither are bell peppers under any chance if you put anything leafy on them when you make it then you will have to remember to eat those quickly. Remembering to not do so may leave you meeting slime leaves in what would be in else wise delicious and filling meal.

Meats are something else that may give you a few more unexpected options as often many will be cooked through for the sake of cleanliness, giving it a longer food life, and less spoilage. Chili falls back into this as it is often cooked through before canning no matter what the brand is.

Fruit in cans often is bound with either syrup or juice and depending on what it is you can still use it. Juice will be a refresher giving you stamina at times when you are feeling tired. Syrup from fruit cans I often use to sweeten jars of peanut butter for a little different flavor. One of those things to make it more palatable. Either of the options there always things to do with it. Drink it, mix it, make dressings for other things. The only things that will stop you is imagination and equipment.

Even after getting some food you still need to break up the monotony and sometimes fast food fits that role with often discount deals and helps bolster use by use of restrooms and a warm bright place to eat. Readers can figure out why this is a bad thing, whether it be sugar, salt, or fat you do have to use it as a spice and not the building bricks of your food.

Working with food allergies in these situations will me immensely worse. The problem is that many of the items that will be easiest to eat will be also those made in places that are not making solely that one item. This is how some items that have no ingredients of say soy for example will still have it as a warning. Machines may work on soy without working on that specific item. For example fish, nuts, eggs are all things that could also be under this set up of not in the item but still being worked on by the machines in later moments. For those looking often any food warning will be near the nutritional info saying such.

Nutritional information is on the label to the side of the logo and is in a table breaking down different values like carbs, fat and protein. Often time if it says supplemental info then it is not available to be bought with food stamps. Another little piece of info often in the same area would be the words “cooked thoroughly” Often on meat products this means that whatever is in it has been cooked to a point safe for consumption. Finding tat the special burger patties had been precooked allowed me to make a pretty awesome patty melt out on the benches that I would make warm when possible.

When you have the chance see what is cooked thoroughly, one thing often is Chef Boyardee food is cooked thoroughly meaning you can not only eat it but the use of pop top lids means you do not need to have a can opener. Lunches and snacks when you go to work will have to be often done out of deals or shopping out of the discount rack. Keeping track when the supermarkets nearby put things on discount will give you the best chance for good options because while packing or camping you will often not have food for long.

If you can work out a safe space to put non spoilable food, it would behoove you to do so. This means you can collect at more opportunity leaving you to also have somewhere to drop weight but in doing so you will lose money for the storage if you have no other options. Always something to think about.

In any case, stay strong and keep going on.