The Tale of the Bagged Carrots

Registered Dietitian Lymaris explains the cost benefits of purchasing produce in bulk on a recent Spanish language store tour.

Yesterday’s tour participants practice identifying whole grains on the ingredient label.

Our Cooking Matters at the Store Tours take place at five Giant grocery store locations throughout Montgomery County. At all of these locations, I consistently find a variety of options in the carrot section for $1.99. There are at least four different sized bags and cuts of carrots all for the same price. It is in front of this array of carrot choices that I survey participants with the question, “Who likes to get the best value for their dollar?” 10 hands wave in the air. You see, this is how it goes:

10 oz. PREMIUM matchstick cut carrots

12 oz. crinkle cut carrot “chips”

16. oz. baby carrots (oh, excuse me, “sweet petite”)

2 pounds whole carrots (with maybe a little dirt on ’em)

ALL FOR $1.99

So I say: “Okay, I’ve got two dollars budgeted for a vegetable side dish tonight. I’m picking up some carrots.” But so many choices! The little bags with the cute shapes are so convenient, I could dump them straight out of the bag into a salad or a hot skillet of olive oil–the work is done!

Then the tour group leans forward, and squints a little at the orange box to which I’m pointing.

When the retail price of all the carrots say $1.99, it seems like you’re spending the same price no matter which cut you choose. But those cute, convenient matchstick (aka shredded) carrots are sometimes $6 per pound where the large bag of whole carrots can be as low as 70 cents per pound. Yes, you’ve got two pounds of carrots to wash and cut up throughout the week, but you have carrots for salads, snacks, stir fry, soups, casseroles, and your freezer. It’s an especially great idea to buy fruits or vegetables in bulk that freeze well: bell peppers, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, onions, peaches, spinach, strawberries, or winter squash. Buying these items seasonally means they’re more affordable, and you can freeze them for off-season months. Berries can simply be washed, hulled, and frozen. By using this simple technique you can enjoy sweet strawberries in your oatmeal in November!

How to blanch and freeze vegetables:

Tour participants leave talking about how interesting and helpful unit prices are, and mention this lesson most often in our post-tour survey. Last week, one participant wrote us saying, “I might even try this blanching thing!”

If you work with an organization serving low-income Montgomery County residents, contact me to register your clients for a guided grocery store tour with Manna: Lindsey@mannafood.org . Find out more about the tours here.

About Lindsey Seegers

Lindsey Seegers is the Program Manager of Nutrition Education at Manna Food Center. Her background is in Social Work and Nutrition; her passion is cooking food always delicious and nutritious. She teaches cooking and nutrition classes, and leads grocery store tours around Montgomery County about affordable and do-able healthy cooking. Since 1983, Manna has been feeding Montgomery County’s food insecure residents. In our 30 years of service Manna has served nearly 3 million people, 668,527 households, and distributed 45 million pounds of food. As the designated food bank for Montgomery County we are the main resource people turn to when they find themselves in need of food assistance. Manna delivers emergency food assistance through its three main programs: Food for Families, Smart Sacks, and Agency Food Distribution.

View all posts by Lindsey Seegers