I’m not great at coupon-ing. I wish I were! I LOVE the idea of scoring a deal and making sure I have plenty on hand to keep the hungry faminals (that’s family+animals) at bay. So when I don’t have a stash of coupons on hand to stock up, I head to my local Safeway where they delight me with their 10 for $10 offers, the selection of good, healthy brands and more.
Our church had a local appeal from the neighborhood food bank whose shelves are bare, a common theme for food banks this time of year. The kids and I headed off to Safeway with a list, a budget and a mission. Our mission was to purchase as much healthy, protein-rich, yet yummy foods for the food bank for $50. Since we’re frequent food bank donors we felt like the $50 was both generous and gives us more to spend later in June when we’ll be running our own food drive.
I was so delighted to pick up the following food that will go directly to families that need it most in our neighborhood. Here’s what $50 bought me at my Seattle area Safeway. Incidentally, I asked the sweet gal at the bakery if she could sell me the day old bakery and bread items, but Safeway has a policy against this. I say no problem because they turn those items into croutons or yard waste and they daily donate what they can to their neighborhood food bank. She and her associate were very sensitive to the issue and that speaks volumes as far as I’m concerned, and I am.
Here’s what $50 bought us for our local Food Bank at Safeway:
- 10 cans meat and bean chili
- 2 huge family size boxes cheerios
- 2 regular size boxes whole grain cheerios – lightly sweetened for breakfast or a snack
- 2 family size cans progresso chicken noodle soup
- 5 low sodium cans black beans
- 3 monster size apple sauce ‘jugs’ in plastic containers, which food banks prefer so they don’t break
- 10 boxes Annie’s organic mac and cheese – my kids live for this
- 2 huge family style Bush’s baked beans with bacon – my hubby lives for THIS
- 48 double nature valley granola bars – I live for these!
Here’s what it all looks like:
