For people on dialysis eating within dietary guidelines during an emergency can be difficult. MREs and most canned food (soups, stew, etc.) are very high in sodium. The Renal Emergency diet, which is almost always put forward as a three day bridge for those on an incenter schedule who miss one treatment, is designed to meet minimal nutrition requirements but how many of us have this ingredient list on hand? Soda, bread, peanut butter, marshmallows ... so in an emergency it's time for a fluffernutter sandwich.
There is an easier and more robust option. All three of the emergency bars featured in this taste test are Coast Guard approved and are renal-ly equivalent to the suggested three day Emergency Renal Diet. I tried one (the lowest rated, the ER Bar) it's not bad, kind of a peanut butter smell with a plain dense cracker taste. Not at all bad with coffee. And being Coast Guard approved they are very low salt since you don't want to get thirsty if you find yourself adrift in a life raft.
The Kidney Community Emergency Response Coalition suggest a minimum stockpile of 2 weeks, (including medicine and home dialysis supplies). A two week emergency diet stockpile is easier to do using ER Bars v. the normally suggested renal emergency diet. The cost would be about $30 a person for food for two weeks (14 - 1,800 calorie portions). I wouldn't want to live on them for two weeks but I could live on them for two weeks in conjunction with some minimum dose of dialysis.
I think the conventional message to dialyzors should be to keep 14 days worth of renal friendly emergency food in reserve. For those on home dialysis we should have on hand, at a minimum: 7 treatments worth of supplies, 14 days worth of medicine, food and water.
With this minimum stockpile one could create a bridge over a two week disruption by combining an every other day dialysis schedule with the emergency diet. Using the emergency bars to meet the food piece would cost about $30. Because the shelf life of the bars is over 5 years (they're rated at five years but kept in a cool, dry & dark storage space they should be fine for much longer) that means that it is a $6 a year insurance policy, a bargin in my book.
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