Sharing Sunday: Local Food Wrap-up

Another week has flown by!  Woooooosh!  (I’ve been reading a lot of train books)  Ding Ding Ding!  I’m entering the final week of the Oregon Food Bank’s Local Food Challenge.  
If you’ve been following along on my #localfoodchallenge journey, I’ve been easily meeting my goal to spend 10% of my grocery budget on local foods, so this week I’ve challenging myself to 50%!  Eek.  

I went to three stores this week: Winco, Whole Foods and The Barn (farm stand).  That is my MAX. I can not shop at more than three stores.  I might gouge my eyes out if I go to one more grocery store.  I had a very simple meal plan this week… so let’s see the numbers:

Whole Foods: $18  (Chicken, herbs & Tomatoes)
The Barn: 11.99
Winco: $10.13 (Local)
Grocery Total: $82.12
Local Foods = 49%  

Wow!  Pretty darn close to my goal.  I’m going to try for the same my final week.  

Overall, this challenge has taught me that it’s not hard to eat locally.  Even at Winco there are local products to be found.  Unfortunately, I have also learned that spending  30-50% of my food budget on local foods requires me to go to multiple stores: Winco, Whole Foods and a farm stand.  That might be a deal breaker for me.  If we had the means we could easily buy it all at a store like New Seasons, but three stores while hauling a baby may not be sustainable.  

But never fear, my original goal of 10% of my food budget is absolutely sustainable.  With smart shopping at Winco and the occasional trip to the farm stand I can  easily do it.  By simply spending a few extra dollars on Tillamook butter, cheese and yogurt, and Franz or Dave’s Killer Breads, I can meet a 10% goal every month.  

(Side note: Thanks to this challenge I discovered The Barn!  Great produce and great prices.  It’s a lousy location but I’ll continue to visit anyway as long as they are open.)  

Thanks to the good people at the Oregon Food Bank for inviting me to take part in this challenge.  I think it’s a great exercise for everyone to really think about where your food comes from.  More than once I was in the grocery store googling a town to figure out if it’s “local”.  

Have a great Sunday!  I’m off to a wedding!