Yesterday I needed to pick up tomatoes and parsley for a dish I am making. (Spouse and I take turns.) While I joke about my cooking, the dishes I know how to make are quite good.
An unexpected and pleasant surprise happened in the health food store. I have been seeing large brown bags on a shelf without rhyme or reason in various stores and assumed it's for food drives.
In the past some of the big stores have a display bag, it's 10 or 20 dollars, they are usually filled with non-perishables, and allegedly given to food banks. I say allegedly because while I like to help, selling contents at regular price to give to a food bank instead of matching it or selling it at cost, doesn't seem charitable.
When grocery stores have a good idea, I wish they would keep it. As a graduate student, my budget was tight, but I wanted to eat healthy. Another student told me that a high end grocery store had an incredible fruit and produce sale before every long weekend. How good can it be I thought? Probably damaged product. Well. This was a high end store. The freshest berries imaginable, shrimp packages for 25cents each. I learned how to freeze the berries and make sugar free compotte for my oatmeal yoghurt breakfast. Every month practically free exotic fruit like physalis or passion fruit.
When covid then two wars increased food prices, I was happy to see health food stores do this. I peeked inside the bag, saw 7 vine ripened tomatoes and parsley. A container of strawberries, some nectarines, ten apples, perfect carrots. Normal quality. For three bucks. Why I asked one of the staff. Customer appreciation, I was told. When they buy surplus they reduce it before it goes bad. First time I bought one.
Great idea.
That is a great idea. I go to a lot of the higher end Grocers either just before Closing or when they first Open and they often have marked down items {perishables} so that they don't go bad and just get thrown out. I know a European Blogger in England that her local Health Food Grocer does the same as what you're talking about. She eats very healthy and it shows, and most of her foods come from that discounted Customer appreciation markdown of their fresh ingredients they either have an overage of or need to rotate out.
ReplyDeleteCodex: they showed that it can be done. Rather than throw it out. They also save money because some of it gets transported to livestock. Doesn't surprise me that Europe does this. They also don't have to keep everything cool for a weekend. It makes sense.
DeleteWhen I did Food Ministry Work to hand out Food Boxes to the needy, if something wasn't fit for Human Consumption we saved it for a local Pig Farmer for his Pigs. At Christmas time he'd butcher one of his Hogs as a Thank You and donate the Meat to the Ministry to hand out to our Clients. It all can come full circle and have zero waste if we're sensible about it.
DeleteCodex: Like that idea. Full circle indeed. I even hate the word needy. S...t happens. What people get depends on the municipality. I liked the idea i mentioned because everyone can grab one.
DeleteOnly two choices for groceries here, the Texas chain HEB which sources as much as they can in Texas and the Walmart. The HEB offers some organic produce which I buy sometimes but it's always more expensive. The Hesed House Market provides locally sourced canned and dried food items, honey, rice, hydroponic lettuce, meat, yard eggs, corn meal, stuff like that. There's a farm that offers produce boxes you order a week in advance but no control over what you get. I tried it a few times but I'd rather decide what I buy. The HEB and Walmart sends their day old reduced produce that didn't sell to SHARE on Thursdays. Some of it is so bad though we just throw it out. Just because you need food assistance doesn't mean you should get decaying produce. The HEB used to do the brown paper bag of stuff customers could buy for $5 or $10 that they then donated somewhere for the needy but they haven't done that in years. I don't think there was any fresh fruit or vegetables in them though.
ReplyDeleteCodex: Wegmans used to offer a veggie fruit box. We tried it once years ago. Just for convenience. They pick customer pays 50 or whatever it was. Apples we don't like. Potatoes. Etc. It was a waste. Normal quality.
DeleteI rarely buy reduced. It goes bad too quickly. Wth do I need 8 mushy bananas for? I hate what they give to the needy. I used to volunteer but thought can't we just give them decent food? And stopped.
I wish our stores did stuff like this. So many people can't afford the prices and end up buying fast foods to feed families. My own solution is to buy soup veg and make soups which are far healthier than chips and chicken nuggets.
ReplyDeleteCodex: I would have thought Oz does. Are you sure?
DeleteI make big pots of stew. Primarily out of convenience. Loads of veggies lasts us three days. Never eat fast food.one can make many things that are cheap and healthy.