Check out this AWESOME email I received from One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Lisa.
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Hi Mavis,
I have been following your blog for over a year now and was amazed and a little jealous of the reclaimed food you were receiving.
I never got up the nerve to try it myself, until the day I saw Minka’s haul! That did it for me. I spoke with my cousin, who works in the office
of a local grocery store. She went and talked with their produce guy and told me to come in the next day. That day I came home with one box
of produce, which is the first photo. He wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, since we have tortoise’s, guinea pigs and rabbits. I told him that they will eat all types of veggies and fruit. The produce guy said to come back Monday morning. My husband went for me and came home with 2 boxes this time.
I did throw out some egg plants, sprouts and collard greens, but the photo is the rest of it that is perfectly good! We ate the corn and some of the lettuce in salads
for afternoon school snacks. I am thankful that I don’t have to pay for veggies for my animals and for all this extra! The produce guy told my husband to come every
Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I would rather just go once or twice a week, but if my husband is willing to be the pick up person, then we’ll see how it goes!
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Holy Cow Lisa! Way to go. I’m so glad you got up the courage to ask. Well done!
~Mavis
To read more about reclaimed food head on over HERE.
*If you have an awesome shopping trip, dumpster dive, garden pictures, chickens or anything else super exciting and would like to be featured here on onehundreddollarsamonth.com, then send in your clear, quality photos to onehundreddollarsamonth {at} gmail.com, along with a brief description of your pictures and I will try and get them posted.
Random Person Named Melissa says
Watch out for those potatos they’re looking alittle green.
Lissa says
Yay Lisa!
I must say I was inspired by Mavis after just one week and spent a day asking at a ton of surrounding stores. Trust me, I got a LOT of “no we can’t for liability” and “no, the food bank already picks it up” I have now settled into a nice routine with 2 local stores. One is a independent small grocery and the other is a small chain natural co-op. I stop at each one once a week, on the same day. From the one store I tend to get the same staples: green and romaine lettuce, corn, tomatoes, strawberries. The co-op is completely random and I will often get large amounts of one thing one week and then not again for weeks. It definitely keeps it fun and nice to change things up on the menu.
Free produce boxes have completely changed the way I shop, my cash outlay for produce, and vastly expanded the amount and type of produce I eat. It is so satisfying to get to USE this food that would otherwise just be in the garbage or compost pile.
indio says
Wow… nice big haul. I asked at my local Whole Foods and they told me that they send it to a farm for compost. Considering how much stuff they throw out with plastic wrapper on it, I’m surprised the farm would take it. One of these days, I’ll try to find a small grocery store that would be willing. My costs for feeding the chickens keeps going up. Free food would be great just for them alone.