FoodWIse partners with a local non-profit agency that serves women in transition periods of their life. We provide monthly life skill courses, such as food safety, meal planning, healthy eating on a budget, and more related topics. By request of the residents and staff, FoodWIse Nutrition Educator, Melanie Phillips, completed a grocery store tour.

This tour included a partnership between Festival Foods and FoodWIse. Festival Foods offered their facilities for this tour and donated a $10 gift card for each participant to purchase healthy foods with the concepts learned during the tour. Phillips took participants through the aisles of Festival Foods while highlighting key shopping tips to purchase healthy foods on a budget. Participants learned and practiced reading food labels, comparing unit prices, finding whole-grain foods, and identifying three ways (fresh, frozen, canned) to purchase produce on a budget.

There were a total of eight participants to complete the tour. Evaluations found that participants indicated they would plan to use the new concepts learned when grocery shopping in the future. 60% of participants plan to compare food labels to make healthy choices and read ingredient lists to find whole grains in the next 6 months. Overall, 75% of participants indicated that they “liked” or “really liked” the tour.

We plan to keep this tour in the monthly rotation of life skills offered by FoodWIse. Cooking Matters at the Store is a program of the No Kid Hungry campaign, by Share our Strength.