you don't have to stock up food, if you can take it from those that do/did.

What I remember best from survivors of the Balkans wars in the 1990s was their statement that it wasn't the best armed people that best survived, nor those that had strong walls, or bunkers full of food. It was those that had the largest and most loyal communities/families. They said what mattered most was the ability to keep watch and alert everyone else busy sleeping or whatever to mount defenses. The ability to do things in strong groups, like go shopping, or working fields, was similarly critical. What mattered wasn't who was in the group, but the size of the group, and it's cohesion.

They also said the first to die were the raiders that lived by taking what others had, because they guarded what they had with lethal force, making raiding a bloody and often fatal occupation.