Finding food in a survival situation

There are endless survival scenarios and situations, but the basic need for Shelter, Food, and Water remain.  While water and shelter will be your first priority, eventually a source of nourishment will need to be secured.  Obviously, depending on your environment, some areas will have more abundant sources of food, and others will be challenging to find anything at all.

Outdoors:

If you have any food with you, it should be kept in reserve until you have exhausted all measures to locate something edible in your surrounding environment.  Grass seeds are a good place to start, all grass seeds are edible, and dont require a lot of energy for the body to digest, you can also eat the roots of most grasses.  Some wild berries, such as blackberries, are edible, but berries are best avoided if possible, particularly red and white berries. The consequences of eating the wrong berry range from stomach ache to to a severe case of you being dead.

If you are near the ocean, you may be able to find mussels, clams, limpets or oysters in rocky areas.  Snakes, lizards, snails, birds, and frogs are also edible when cleaned and cooked, and are a lot easier to hunt than other small animals such as rabbits, racoons and squirrels.  If you dont have a can or pot to cook them, you can place them directly on the coals of your fire after the flames die down.  Look for trails made by animals, these are good places to set traps, or to follow in your search of water.

You would not normally look at bugs and think about eating them, but insects are pound for pound better sources of protein than most meats.  It might take a day or so before you can talk yourself into it, but eventually you'll be ready to chow down on some termite and grasshopper finger food.  Caterpillars, spiders (non-poisonus) and flies can be eaten, as well as ants, and moths.

Inside:

If you are "sheltering in place", in your home, and you have planned ahead, you should have non-perishable food in place to sustain you and your family.   Otherwise, if the power is on, turn the refrigerator to its lowest setting, and try to keep the door closed.   This will help preserve the perishible food inside as long as possible. Eat perishible food first, before it spoils.  Empty the fridge, then the freezer, then move on to the pantry !  Hopefully there will be food enough to sustain you.   If you run out of food, you may have to resort to looking for insects.  So, in short, it pays to keep an emergency supply of food on hand.

If you are in a commercial building of some type, and cannot leave for an extended period, your choices will likely be limited.  Make sure you have secured water first.   With any luck you might find a snack machine, dont worry about correct change, just chuck a fire extinguisher thru the glass.  Make sure you cover your eyes when you break it, and use care around the broken glass when removing your free snickers bar.  Search desk drawers and file cabinets for snacks, they are usually a good bet.