Kosciusko Farm Bureau will celebrate Food Check-Out Week Feb. 3-9 to help raise awareness of the role farmers play in the availability of affordable food in America.
Lenore Lewis, County Women's Leader for the Kosciusko Farm Bureau, said Food Check-Out Week marks the point in the year when the average working family has earned enough to buy all their food for the year.According to a Kosciusko Farm Bureau press release, American families and individuals currently spend an average of just less than 10 percent of their disposable personal income on food. According to the Indiana Farm Bureau, that means the average working household will have earned enough to pay for its annual food supply about five weeks into the year.
Lewis said that most Americans don't realize how affordable food is in America.
"Often, we say food costs are high, however, we are placing non-edible food items purchased at the grocery store into that cost," Lewis said. "Edible food costs in the U.S. are cheaper than most other countries."
In past years, Lewis said Farm Bureau members spent time at Marsh Supermarket and calculated the amount shoppers spent on edible food products to illustrate the difference between shoppers' grocery bills and what they actually spent on food.
This year, Lewis said the Farm Bureau has something else in mind. Wednesday, Farm Bureau members will hand out loaves of bread at Marsh with a note attached explaining that, for each loaf of bread, farmers make about 5 cents; the rest of the price of bread comes from packaging and distribution costs.
Lewis said the Farm Bureau hopes the demonstration helps the public realize that when food prices rise, it doesn't mean farmers are getting rich. Lewis said, to a large extent, the public is becoming less aware of how farmers provide food.
"We've gotten farther and farther away from the importance of the farmer," Lewis said. "Ask kids at school where milk comes from and they'll say the grocery store. We live in a farming community and we need to appreciate the farmer and what he does."
Food Check-Out Week is celebrated nationwide. The first official national observance was in 1998.
