Most of us don’t know how to eat healthy on a budget. It can be hard to do especially if you’re on the salary of a broke college student.
Vandal Health Education offers services that can help. About once a week they offer free grocery tours at various stores in order to help students navigate healthy eating while on a budget.
When I signed up for a grocery store tour, I signed up for a Moscow Food Co-Op tour, which is a store I don’t shop at. This was the only tour that fit into my schedule this month, so I reluctantly signed up. I thought because I didn’t ever shop there, the tour would be a waste of time.
However, once I got there, I was met with valuable information that can be applied to nearly any grocery store. So, if you’re wanting to schedule a tour and you can’t for the store that you want, the information will be helpful regardless.
These tours are important not only because it helps students try to navigate a stressful experience, but because they provide valuable information that people may not have gotten growing up.
It’s no secret a healthy diet not only affects your physical health, but your mental health. If you don’t have the proper food to fuel your body, you won’t have the energy to get through the day.
For those who didn’t grow up with a healthy food influence, it may be hard for them to recognize their eating habits are bad because they don’t know otherwise. If those healthy habits aren’t established early, it can be hard to relearn better ones later on.
These tours help students learn the skills they never got growing up. The fact that they’re free is also a huge plus because if the information doesn’t work out or seem helpful for you, you didn’t lose anything.
These tours are around an hour and half, because they go in-depth about tips regarding healthy food choices. These tours are guided by University of Idaho dietetics students who are there solely to help you understand this information. The tours are limited to eight people, so there is plenty of opportunity to get your questions answered.
In order to go on one of these tours, you must sign up ahead of time on UI’s website. There is one more opportunity to go on a free grocery store food tour this
month. The last opportunity is Feb. 24 at the Co-Op. Dates for tours in March will be set later.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole.