If requested, General Mills would even supply innovative recipes for cooking the post-nuclear apocalypse staple.Įach kit also contained 14 cans of water, enough to last one individual two weeks.
General Mills recommended adding MPF to other foods, such as tomato juice for breakfast and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, suggesting the product's flavor may have been less than desirable. Served hot or cold, wet or dry, three scoops of MPF were all shelter occupants needed to meet required daily nutrients and caloric intake.
General Mills had experimented with shelf-stable food engineered for fallout shelters since 1960. Surviv-All, Inc., of New York City manufactured the food kits, but General Mills developed the central component-a gallon can containing a granulated protein mix called Multi-Purpose Food (MPF). Along with gallon jugs of water, he stocked it with three Emergency-Pak Food and Water Kits, one each for his wife, son, and himself. As a local pediatrician, he was also aware of the alternative: radiation exposure.įollowing instructions published by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, Parman constructed his shelter from cinder blocks and wood purchased at a local lumberyard. Robert Parman probably envisioned similar conditions for his family when he constructed a fallout shelter in his Topeka home in 1961. Should such an attack occur, people were instructed to enter these shelters where (along with traumatized family members, foul odors, and confining spaces) they could look forward to consuming their daily share of granulated protein mix and vitamin C wafers.ĭr. Shelters were developed to mitigate the effects of a nuclear attack. Life in a nuclear fallout shelter was a grim prospect, but events during the Cold War made it an increasing possibility. Kennedy, presidential address, July 25, 1961
"In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved-if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available."- John F. A Topeka family purchased this food kit in the 1960s, hoping to survive the dropping of a nuclear bomb.
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