Food Check-Out Week Benefits Local Food Shelf, and many others

The Cottonwood County, Minnesota, Farm Bureau is teaming up with the local Hy-Vee grocery store in Windom, MN, for a bit of food fun benefiting the local food shelf.  The Cottonwood County Citizen reports:

At 10 a.m. [Monday], teams from Citizen Publishing and KDOM Radio will be on a two-minute dash through the aisles of the Hy-Vee store filling their carts with nonperishable food items. The team collecting the most pounds of food will have its collection donated to the Sharing Center.

The cost will be split between the county chapter of the Farm Bureau Association and Hy-Vee in Windom.

The public is encouraged to come out and watch the friendly competition that goes to a great cause.

Local county and state Farm Bureau organizations are celebrating Food Check-Out Week 2011, February 20-26.  The week honors the contributions of farmers and ranchers to providing a safe, reliable food supply.

“The core message Farm Bureau would like to communicate during Food Check out Week is that we are devoted to helping teach Americans how to stretch their grocery dollars with healthy, nutritious food,” says Marilyn Nickel, promotion & education chair of the county [Farm Bureau].  “Knowing your food budget, planning balanced meals, making a list and shopping at competitively-priced grocery stores with high-quality produce are just a few strategies to achieve better nutrition with less money.”

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Farm Bureau member and county board member in a different, nearby county where we’re not quite so active. Kudos to the Citizen and KDOM radio* for putting this on in Windom.

Activities across the country range from supermarket demonstration stations to collecting donations to Ronald McDonald Houses.  American Farm Bureau Federation and the Soybean Checkoff have also set up a joing Facebook page for the occasion.  AFBF will donate $1 to the Ronald McDonald House of Roanoke in Virginia for every person who “likes” the Facebook page –http://www.facebook.com/NationalFoodCheckoutWeek – by the end of April, up to $3,500. The money raised will go to a very worthwhile cause, as the House provides 9,000 meals for critically ill children and their families each year.

Look for local Food Check-Out Week festivities in your community next week.

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(*KDOM-AM/FM is also our local source for Twins baseball)

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