If you want to go the cheap route, get 5/5 gallon buckets, mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, and 20lb bags of rice, rice, rice, beans, beans. Maybe costs you $100 max and will last forever. Will probably keep a family fed for 3 months.
You also need a sealer for the mylar bags. One bucket of rice and beans is piddling food compared to today’s standards, but those MREs run out quick and people will eat them 3 meals a day just like regular food. The beans and rice only need salt and whatever else you can find and you just boil it in water.
It ain’t pretty, but it’s better than spending $1,000 on the same amount of food.
You can also trade bags of it for other things.
An iron for clothes works for sealing mylar bags.