Today marks what would’ve been the 108th birthday of the beloved children’s author, Dr. Seuss. We all know the importance of learning to read (and have fun doing it!) and we here at Social Grocery wanted to honor Dr. Seuss with our own infographic dedicated to him. Our favorite is, of course, Green Eggs and Ham!
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What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!
Super Bowl Sunday: a day of celebration and indigestion, a joyous combination of football, friends, and of course–food. Here is Social Grocery’s low down on the Super Bowl Snackdown!
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The holidays are fast approaching, and Social Grocery is here to help! Check out our Treats & Treadmills tool to help you count calories before (or after!) you consume. We’ll help you determine how many miles you’ll have to walk/run to burn off those extra holiday sweets!
Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and we can almost smell the slow roasting turkey from here. But before we swan dive into mounds of mashed potatoes and gravy, we here at Social Grocery took a look at some interesting (and surprising!) Thanksgiving numbers.
We’re counting down the days…and the calories.
Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Social Grocery!
November reminds everyone here at Social Grocery to be thankful for all the wonderful things and people we have in our lives. We spend our entire day talking about groceries and food and deliciousness that sometimes we forget of the struggles millions of families are having across the country just to purchase the essentials. In March 2011 alone, SNAP ( Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the national assistance program, served close to 44.5 million people.
We”re social about groceries (it”s why we call ourselves Social Grocery!) and we believe that everyone should not only be able to buy them and enjoy them but also eat a healthy and nutritious diet. So, in conjunction with National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness week, we”re hosting a challenge and inviting every one of you (and ourselves!) see what it”s like to live solely on federal assistance for groceries.
When:
Monday, November 14th- Sunday, November 20th
Why:
To experience life on a limited food budget similar to those in the national Food Stamp program and to raise awareness of hunger and poverty in North America.
The Challenge:
Live on the national average monthly benefit for the food stamp program, an average of $31.50 a week per person. That”s $4.50 a day, $1.50 a meal.
Guidelines
All eyes will be on YOU that week!
Do you think you could do it? Why or why not? Talk about it here or on our Facebook or Twitter.
November is one of my favorite months–mostly, for the delicious meal I engorge myself with on the 24th (and for a few days after that!). But, I also enjoy it because it reminds us to be truly thankful for some of the things we”re very privileged to have in our lives.
Recently I found out about a food challenge in Vermont sponsored by Hunger Free Vermont called the 3SquaresVT challenge (named after the state”s food stamp program). It simply asked people to change their eating and shopping habits for one week to live on the state”s average food stamp allowance: $38.
As a single twentysomething, this wouldn”t be too far of a stretch for me. Resort back to the college ramen and PB & J diet, cut out a beer allowance, and I could survive. But honestly, not for long–I couldn”t do it for weeks and weeks. And if you added kids into that mix? It was a scary thought.
I scoured the internet for more information and found a similar challenge on a national level called the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge created by FRAC, the Food Research and Action Center.
It challenges others to live on the national food stamp budget of $1 a meal, or $3 a person a day. $21? I was dreading $38! If you want a fun and interesting read, FRAC took it one step further and asked members of congress to participate in the challenge. Click here to read their responses and how cutting their budget to $21 severely impacted their meals and food challenges.
When a budget is so restrictive, every factor that one might usually use in the store (nutrition, health, environmentally friendly) goes out the window–Just the price tag. Fresh fruits and produce are out of the question. Forget organic or diet specific foods, or even whole grain or whole wheat. It”s a whole lot of white breads, pasta, and rice. Is living on $21/week possible? Sure. But more importantly, can you receive all the nutrients you need and still eat healthy on $21/week? That, well, I”m just not sure.
Personally, I”d be picking at bones to savor the last little pieces of food–and now I have quite a few bones to pick with the food stamp system.
Could you do it? Could you feed yourself (and/or your family) on $21/person/week? Let us know, we want to hear your thoughts on this one.
Happy Halloween from all of us here at Social Grocery!
And let”s be honest, this is what our diet REALLY looks like today:
Happy Halloween!
Move over skeletons, ghosts, and ghouls–we all know what Halloween is REALLY about–candy! We love it all, Tootsie Rolls, Snickers, M& Ms, chocolate, gummies, gum, all of it! We hope you have a spooktacular and sweet Halloween from all of us at Social Grocery!
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A little over a month ago, Hurricane Irene made landfall along the Eastern Coastline, causing over $10.5 billion dollars in damage. Here in Vermont, the home state of Social Grocery, many towns, businesses, and people are still cleaning up the mess it left behind. Our parent company, MyWebGrocer, took a look at its online sales data and found that many consumers were stocking up prior to Hurricane Irene”s landfall. So, we give you our “Preparing for Hurricane Irene” infographic.
(click image for a larger version.)
Questions? Concerns? Let us know! We”re listening: Facebook || Twitter || Email
The closest I ever got to traveling the world when i was younger was “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”. (Anyone? Anyone?) It wasn”t until I was a junior in college that I got my first opportunity to leave the country.
Now that I”ve done a bit of international traveling, I”ve realized one of my favorite things when traveling is finding new and strange foods. Some are new and exotic dishes in restaurants or street markets, and some of them of fun packaged foods sold in grocery stores in that country. So, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Jaunted.com”s weekly “Foreign Grocery Friday” blog series. These fun folks are in the travel biz, and therefore have come across some of the world”s best (and strangest!) foods.
In their most recent post, Jaunted features a product that combines my favorite Sunday morning breakfast with my favorite Thursday night bar snack. Enter pancake flavored pretzel sticks called Pretz.
At first glance they look seemingly harmless, but the Jaunted.com reviewers warn of the sickingly artificial sweetness smell that overpowers your nose on first sniff. Apparently the taste is just as sweet, according to their post:
” The flavor has been baked into them, and it”s the flavor of Japan”s idea of Pancake Syrup: an extremely rich honey milk paired with regular syrup. Just one stick should do for a while; five and you”ll think you”re due for a cavity.”
Want to read more on this or other fun, foreign grocery Friday finds? Check out their blog here.