Grocery shopping you can’t do life without it!
Our final tour for the field moms this year was to the Ultra Foods in Wheaton and the Northern Illinois Food Bank. We started in the store with a shopping 101 with Michelle, the store manager, giving us great information about Ultra Foods. I hope we have one coming to our area soon since we don’t have a grocery experience like this near where I live. You get the option of some bulk sized items you find in a Costco or Sam’s married with a traditional grocery store. It seems like they took all the best ideas from several grocery stores and put it into one place. I was also impressed at the cleanliness of the store as well as their policies for groceries that will be donated to food pantries instead of wasted.
The most important thing I took away from this tour of the grocery store is that your grocery decisions do matter in the retail setting. After all they are in it to make money so if you are not buying something you may not see it on the shelves after awhile. Also, it matters if you ask for a product you don’t see. Keep asking and you might see it as a regular item before too long. An example is the huge renovation of the store we visited to accommodate the growing desire for fresh produce and ready made meals that you can heat and serve or are hot and ready to take home. In the end speak up in your grocery store they will listen!
One thing I need to caution my friends who are diligent label readers. Some of the labels are really just marketing ploys to get you to buy their product instead of the one next to them. I have learned to be aware of the ones who claim antibiotic and hormone free in your meats. No meat is able to be in your grocer’s case with any trace of antibiotics or hormones. It might not mean that the animal was raised without using antibiotics or hormones it just means you can rest assured that this meat has none right now. Personally I don’t care if they used antibiotics to keep the animal healthy while they care for it. Because after visiting a farm and seeing for myself the way they care for their animals I have no qualms about it. There are strict guidelines for the quarantine of an animal and the waiting time necessary to make sure the antibiotics are out of the animal’s system before going to market.
There are so many more confusing labels out there designed to get you to buy so take some time to do some factual research on these things to avoid spending extra money where it may not be healthier for your family at all. Use your head and ask yourself “Is this something that is healthy just because it claims it is cholesterol free or fat free?” “Does organic mean that it has more nutrients for my family?” No. You might be spending a lot of extra money to avoid pesticides that are easily washed off the fruit or vegetable.
This was a full day of learning and the highlight for me was Kevin Daugherty, Education Director from the Illinois Agriculture in the classroom. He gave so much great information available for teachers to use in the classroom. We made pumpkin pie in a cup and learned about some great literature for kids that ties in with learning about agriculture. Great relevant real-life learning. Who shouldn’t know more about their food? His illustration that most kids can tell you all about penguins but have little knowledge about how their food is grown is sobering. My friends who are teachers please see the link where you can order Ag-magazines for your classroom free of charge. Great for the core standards of non-fiction learning. http://www.agintheclassroom.org/TeacherResources/AgMags.shtml
Finally the Northern Illinois Food Bank tour was INCREDIBLE to say the least. What an impressive facility and a testament of how hard work and people coming together to change the hunger problem in their community can net such a beautiful result! If you have an opportunity to serve at any of the food banks I would highly recommend it. http://solvehungertoday.org/ They were packing holiday boxes in the warehouse that day and we spent several hours sorting and repacking 8,000 pounds of the meat that had been donated from various grocery stores. All the meat products that are too close to their expiration date in your fresh case are frozen so that it can be given to families in need. There is very little wasted at the Food bank we had a palette full of meat that was not suitable for repacking that will go to local nature centers or shelters to feed the animals there.
Five take-aways (things I didn’t know before this tour that I thought were interesting):
1. At Ultra Foods we found out there is a 7 year apprentice program to become a meat cutter.
2. From the nutritionist who spoke to us: Try to look for the word whole in the first 4 ingredients of your bread that you buy.
3. EWG.org=Great information regarding your food and other things too. http://www.ewg.org/
4. StillTasty.com http://www.stilltasty.com/ A handy website to help you know about the shelf life of your foods. No more guessing if it is ‘still tasty’.
5. At the Northern Illinois Food Bank 75% of the food is donated! 10% from the government and 15% is purchased. (There are always a few items that need to be purchased because everyone needs it and they simply can’t run out.)
What a great year learning about farming and food and enjoying the company of some wonderful intelligent women who come from all walks of life. I highly recommend being a field mom to anyone considering finding out more about the program. They are taking applications now so don’t wait! http://www.watchusgrow.org/about-us/apply-to-be-a-field-mom
Thanks for following my adventure as a field mom.
Susan Herold
believethebest 