Sunday was the first day of Food Check-Out Week. I had never heard of it before, but the Farm Bureau program is in its 11th year.
[I love that the program was started in the mid-90s in South Carolina (one of my favorite states) and had its inaugural national event in Chicago in 1998.]
The idea this year, with the theme “Stretching Your Food Dollar with Healthy, Nutritious Food,” is to promote healthy eating on a tight budget.
I hear all the time that eating healthy is for the elite and more expensive than the junk food that brilliant marketers have trained our bodies to crave.
So I was especially interested to read this tidbit in a small Tennessee paper, the Daily Post-Athenian:
A March 2008 USDA report favorably supports the economics of healthier eating. Recent food price data show that prices for unprepared, readily available fresh fruits and vegetables have remained stable relative to dessert and snack foods, such as chips, ice cream and cola. Therefore, as defined by foods in the study, the price of a “healthier” diet has not changed compared to an “unhealthy” diet.
The Farm Bureau has some tips about buying healthy on a budget, including planning meals before heading to the store, and buying produce fresh and in season.
I’d say that advanced meal planning has been the absolute key to us being able to not only serve balanced meals that all of us can eat, but to eat together as a family, even after a busy day.
Food week runs through Feb. 21. I’d like to pull together some shop-healthy-on-a-budget tips of my own by the end of the week to post. So if you have ideas to share, please do.
Virtual Farmgirl 
How about this article on the ways raising your own chickens can actually save money? http://is.gd/jMwB
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Thanks Kelly. I write a lot about backyard chickens here. But I don’t believe they are money savers. At best, you’ll break even. For urban farmers, backyard chickens can provide an excellent source of high-quality eggs (if you’re feeding them correctly and have enough space for grazing). But unless you have a cheap source of food and raise your hens from chicks (and definitely don’t count the time you put into them), they will cost more per dozen of eggs than even the priciest organic version at the grocery.
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How about this article on the ways raising your own chickens can actually save money? http://is.gd/jMwB
LikeLike
Thanks Kelly. I write a lot about backyard chickens here. But I don’t believe they are money savers. At best, you’ll break even. For urban farmers, backyard chickens can provide an excellent source of high-quality eggs (if you’re feeding them correctly and have enough space for grazing). But unless you have a cheap source of food and raise your hens from chicks (and definitely don’t count the time you put into them), they will cost more per dozen of eggs than even the priciest organic version at the grocery.
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