TITLE: Comparison Food Shopping:
Buying Groceries for Two People for One Week
AUTHOR: Kay B. Edwards, Marana PLUS Program, Marana
Public Schools; Marana Arizona
GRADE LEVEL: 12th Grade; This lesson will work well in
other classes such as child development,
consumer math, or home economics.
OVERVIEW: Need for consumer awareness in food
consumption.
PURPOSE: Have students discover that nutritious food can be
bought and prepared more cheaply than "fast food"
OBJECTIVE(s):
(1) Teach students to use a simple food budget for two
(2) Teach students to comparison shop through newspaper
ads
(3) Teach (or remind) students to include the basic four
food groups daily
(4) Teach (or remind) students about calorie content of
common foods.
MATERIALS:
Regular notebook paper, scissors, paste or scotch tape,
calculator, several days' worth of food ads from your local
newspaper along with teacher packet of information on food
groups and calories
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
Discuss with the student (or class) the importance of good
diets and of staying within a food budget. This may include
asking each student for a favorite food and finding out how
many choices are home-cooked and how many are "fast food."
Ask the students if they have any idea how nutritious their
favorite food is--or how much of a "junk-food item" it
really is! Other questions could center around how much
money is spent on eating out in a typical week, and how much
of a person's total income can be budgeted for food. It's
always interesting to discuss school cafeteria food. (The
possibilities are endless.)
Once the introduction is over, pass out an information
packet for this project. Included is a statement of how much
money can be spent for food for two people for one week:
$60.00. Included also are some pages of information on the
basic four food groups and sample calorie amounts for an
adult portion of common foods. A lot or a little discussion
may be needed at this point, depending on the students'
background in food preparation and living on their own.
Students are directed to "shop" from the Tucson Wednesday
papers since this is the day when the most food ads are
included. Each student is to "spend" his or her $60.00 in a
way that is nutritious and varied, remembering that he/she
is shopping for two.
PROCEDURE:
1. The student surveys the ads for the four basic food
groups. He/she will look for meat such as frying
chickens at 35 cents per lb; bananas at 4 lbs for a
dollar; 2% milk, $1.69 per gallon, etc.
2. The student keeps a running list of money spent. When
he/she has spent approximately $60.00, he/she cuts out
the ads and mounts them neatly on notebook paper. The
student then doublechecks to see that each food group
is represented every day in approximately ideal
amounts.
3. After this activity is over, on a separate piece of
notebook paper, the student totals his/her purchases to
reaffirm that the goal of $60.00 or less has been met.
4. Third, the student approximates the number of calories
for each meal per person comparing the number of
calories to an ideal number for a young, active adult
and adjusts accordingly.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
A. At the conclusion of the lesson, the student will turn
in his/her ads, cost analysis and calorie analysis.
B. The students can share their findings. Were they
surprised by how expensive food was or how cheap? Did
they improve their awareness of calories and menus?
etc. Is there money left over for an occasional "Big
Mac?"
C. Enrichment activities include finding or inventing
tasty recipes, varying the number of calories consumed
to provide a person on a diet to lose weight or to gain
weight, or clipping coupons and figuring the savings.
A student pamphlet with recipes and accompanying
calorie list could be prepared and distributed, an
article could be written for the student newspaper, a
bulletin board display could be set up in the library.
A team of students could analyze the school cafeteria
food for a week to determine the number of calories in
a typical meal.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org