All you need to know about the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge

(Note: In this post, we will be discussing the mechanics of the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge.  For further details, please read the introductory post.)

The Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge is focused on eating local within a budget for a week during April. 

From April 23 - 29, we would like to invite all interested people in the Eat Local community to join us in a challenge focusing on eating local within the budget of an average American family.

Before the challenge begins on April 23, please post a statement on your blog and/or email the Eat Local Challenge site with your statement of participation.  Your statement should contain the following:

1.  What's your definition of local for this challenge?

Many of us will be using a 100-mile radius from our homes. Dependent on your location in the country, it may be easier or more difficult for you to eat local.  You could define local as anything from your county to within the state or the United States.

2.  What exemptions will you claim?

There are some things that are a part of your everyday life that may be impossible to source locally.  For the purposes of the Penny-Wise challenge, we ask that any exemptions you claim still be included in the dollar amounts for your final budget.  It's important to know how close we all came to the average American food budget.

3.  Will you be making any changes to our budget goals?

Our budget goals are as follows:

1 person in the family, one wage earner: $68 a week
2+ persons in the family, one wage earner: $121 a week
2+ persons in the family, 2 wage earners: $144 a week
2+ persons in the family, 3+ wage earners: $184 a week

Which budget will you be working with?  If you are making any changes, what will they be?  Please note that beverages are included in this budget with the exception of alcoholic beverages.  Americans spend an average of an extra $8 a week on alcoholic beverages, so if you'd like you can add that into your budget. 

4.  Do you have any additional personal goals for the week? 

Some people have other personal things they would like to keep track of for themselves (amount of time they spend on cooking, amount they spend on vegetables or eating out, etc.).  If you have some of those, please state them.

If you don't have a blog, please participate!  You can email your information to us, and we will be posting participant excerpts here.

Also, please check back with this site in the next few weeks.  We will have a follow-up questionnaire that we will be asking you to answer after the challenge, and will have that available shortly.  More than any other challenge, the follow-up information will be critical for this one!

If you've never participated in a challenge, please note that this challenge is considered a little more advanced as it is focused both on eating food from within your local foodshed and keeping track of your food dollars.  If you're ready for the extra challenge, great!  But if you're not sure you're quite there yet, you may want to consider participating in our September 2007 Eat Local Challenge which won't have the budget restrictions.

Do you have more questions?  Check our FAQ page for more information.

As always, please feel free to comment here or email us privately with questions about the challenge.

Comments

[Ariah Fine]

Woah, were did you get those numbers?
That's more money then I spend in a month!

[cookiecrumb]

I'm in, but I'm doing it off-schedule. I will adhere to the regimen for a full seven days, and even though we are retired and it's a little strange to decide which of us (or both) is a wage earner, we're going with the $144/week figure, because that's what we can afford. We actually expect to come in cheaper...
The reason for my going off schedule is to accommodate a food writer who will be following our adventure in advance. Here's the fun part: We will be inviting her to a penny-wise lunch made entirely from food found within our county. The rest of our meals will allow a 100-mile radius.
As for exemptions, in the past I've allowed imported tea. But this time I think I'm going to stick with dried mint leaves from my patio plant for tea. And, as you know, mint grows like weeds if you let it, so for my budget, the mint is free.

[Paul Ferguson]

I just posted my intentions for the April week long challenge. Looking forward to meeting new people!!

glittershit.blogspot.com

Paul

[tia]

I am intrigued by this. Does "eating locally" mean buying your food at the farmer's market or growing it at home? I have a hard time imagining putting together a meal only from things at the farmer's market. Pasta is such a weekly part of our meal. Any suggestions for feeding two teens without pasta? I am lucky to live in the Bay Area of California. Thanks!

[Emma]

How does food you've grown yourself figure into the budget? Is that considered free, or should you allocate money for supplies bought and time spent for gardening? Also, does dumpster-dived food count as local?

[Imogen]

Anyone know how to find out the average food bills for the UK?

I think dumpster diving ('skipping' in Britain!) is fantastic, highly ethical & fun, but, probably doesn't help this as a 'research project'.

bon appetite!

[Pat McGovern]

Great idea . . . and quite a challenge here in northern New England where we have just been blanketed with two days of snow! I plan to eat foods grown within 100 miles of home with the exception of Fair Trade locally roasted coffee, walnuts and locally milled (but not locally grown) pastry flour. A plus will be the new maple syrup!

[BobPixel]

Regarding pasta in the Bay Area, Rainbow Grocery, Wholefoods, Berkeley Bowl, or my favorite Alameda Natural Grocery are all places where you will be able to find knowledgable staff who can point you to locally produced breadstuffs.

There are lots of great carbohydrates that are grown nearby, just go explore and you'll find a few!

[julie]

Regarding pasta, if you go by the strict definition of local, the ingredients must be grown locally. I don't think you will find any wheat pasta that fits this category. Some people choose to extend the definition to include products produced locally, but with non-local ingredients. In that case there are local pasta makers such as Pasta Shop and Phoenix Pastificio. If you do want to go with all local ingredients, I recommend rice. You can get local (actually just over 100 miles, depending on where you live) rice from Lundberg or Massa Organics. Lundberg also makes a rice pasta, though I don't know if it's good.

[Heather]

Even though I had snow on my front yard just two days ago, our farmers' market opens this Saturday. Your timming is perfect.
We will define local as within 100 miles, unlike our grocer Whole Foods who defines it as seven hours away. By airplane that could be quite a distance.
I live in the city and eat out nearly every night so this will be an interesting challenge.

[Scott]

I can't wait for the challenge! This will be difficult in my opinion. But I also have to remember local doesn't always need to mean organic. I think most people put the two together.

[Anita]

Is the $8/week on alcohol per person, or per family?

[Anita]

I dug through the PDF data and answered my own question: $8/week is the average alcohol budget for all "consumer units", regardless size. For a 1-person unit, the number is $6.20/week and for a 2-person unit it's $9.75. 3- and 4-person units are closer to the $8 average.

[tia]

Wouldn't it be nice if someone who did this last year posted possible menu ideas? I feel like I am trying to reinvent the wheel. I went to the farmer's market yesterday and felt lost at what to feed my family for breakfast and what to pack them for lunch during the school week. Whine whine...I know but I really want to do this but wish I had some support. T

[Anita]

Tia, we're taking a lot of leftovers for lunch. On the days when we don't have leftovers, I'm making sandwiches (although I'm defining locally-made bread as local, which isn't meeting the strict definition, I realize) with things like egg salad. Rice-and-bean salads would work if you're avoiding bread; also chicken salad made from a leftover dinner chicken.

We're eating eggs and buttered toast (mmm, local marmalade!) for breakfast, with occasional strips of bacon when the budget allows.

[nani]

I'm interested in doing this, too but I'll be off schedule as well. Our CSA deliveries don't begin until June 6th (we just signed up!!).

[nani]

I'm interested in doing this, too but I'll be off schedule as well. Our CSA deliveries don't begin until June 6th (we just signed up!!).

[Elizabeth]

I've been working hard at this challenge all week -- my daily results are on my blog. Lots of exceptions in my diet, but it will be interesting to work out what percentage is local at the end of the week.

Local, unfortunately, is defined as Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. This allows me to buy foods with the "Homegrown" label at Natural Seasons in Portland...including some wonderful chicken sausage and some organic small red beans.

Short-term goal: eat as locally as possible with no eating out for this week.

Long-term goals: to keep shrinking my food shed...I'm having the usual trouble with grains, legumes, oil.

[Elizabeth]

Also, I am trying to improve my family's diet without drastically changing it. The changes I have already made (beet pizza? BEET PIZZA???) are alarming to my 15-year old son, and I make a lot of exceptions for him--soda, chocolate, etc. and when I make something weird like beet pizza, I offer an alternative (a second pizza, cheese and sausage, in this case).

For those looking for recipes (Anita) try culinate.com, which provides lots of (mostly) simple recipes with fresh seasonal ingredients and a gourmet flair.