Budget Planning
Costing an emergency food stockpile
How to build a defensible budget figure — which units to compare on, what belongs in the total beyond unit price, and how institutional pricing works.
Quick answer: Budget on cost per meal serving, not per carton or per piece — carton counts and piece weights differ between suppliers, so only the serving compares cleanly. Multiply target people × days × meals per day, add a buffer, then apply your quoted rate. Institutional pricing is quoted per requirement, since volume, schedule, and destination all move it.
Two pricing tracks, and why
Being explicit about this avoids the mismatch between what a buyer expects and what a quotation says.
Institutional purchasing
Quoted per requirement. Volume, delivery schedule, destinations, and required documentation all affect the figure, and they differ enough between buyers that a single published price would be misleading. You receive a quotation prepared against your stated requirement, in a form you can carry into procurement.
LGUs, relief organisations, uniformed services, schools, hospitals and facilities.
Retail purchasing
Single-unit purchases for household preparedness kits, go-bags, and small reserves are a separate track with its own pricing. Retail availability and pricing will be published here once confirmed — this page will be updated at that point.
Households, small organisations, individual buyers.
Compare on the serving, not the carton
The single most common costing error in emergency food procurement.
| Unit | Comparable across suppliers? | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per carton | No — carton counts differ | Purchase orders and delivery notes only |
| Cost per piece | No — piece weights differ | Internal issue records |
| Cost per meal serving | Yes | Comparing bids, budgeting coverage |
| Cost per family-day | Yes | Household-level planning and reporting |
For reference when normalising offers: a FoodSecure PH meal serving is 120g (two 60g pieces) providing approximately 550 kcal and 22g protein. Ask every supplier for grams per serving so you can convert their quote to the same basis.
What belongs in the total that unit price doesn't capture
Three costs that sit outside the quotation but land on the same budget.
Storage
Space per serving drives warehouse cost where capacity is rented or constrained. A more compact format lowers the storage cost attached to the same coverage.
Rotation
Shorter shelf life means more frequent replacement of unused stock. A 2-year shelf life roughly halves the rotation cycle compared with 1-year relief goods.
Handling
Formats needing sorting, portioning, or cooking carry staff cost at distribution. Individually sealed servings are handed out directly.
Get a quotation for your requirement
Size the quantity with the planner, then send it with your delivery locations and timeline. You will get a quotation prepared against that requirement, alongside the documents a technical evaluation needs.
Frequently asked questions
How much does FoodSecure PH cost?
Institutional pricing is quoted per requirement rather than published, because it depends on order volume, delivery schedule, and destination — a single barangay reserve and a multi-site prepositioning programme are not comparable purchases. Send your target quantity, timeline, and delivery locations and we will return a quotation you can take into procurement.
Why is institutional pricing different from retail pricing?
They are different transactions. Retail pricing covers a single unit bought off the shelf. Institutional pricing reflects volume, an agreed delivery schedule, freight to specified destinations, and documentation prepared for technical evaluation. Publishing one figure for both would misrepresent whichever buyer it did not describe, so we quote institutional requirements individually.
What unit should I budget on?
Budget per meal serving, not per carton or per piece. Cartons vary in count between suppliers and pieces vary in weight, so neither compares cleanly. Cost per meal serving — and, for household planning, cost per family-day — are the two units that stay comparable across offers.
How do I estimate total budget for a stockpile?
Multiply target people by days of coverage by meals per person per day, add a buffer for distribution loss, then multiply by cost per meal serving. The procurement planner performs the first part and returns estimated meal servings and total weight; apply your quoted rate to that figure.
Should storage cost be part of the comparison?
Where warehouse space is constrained or rented, yes. A format needing substantially less space per serving reduces the storage cost attached to the same coverage, and reduces how often stock must be rotated when shelf life is longer. Both are real costs that unit price alone does not capture.