The Tale of Two Shoppers

Thank you to Joe DeCiccio, Res Life Faculty, for writing today's blog.

Growing up, I remember shopping with my mom. 

I really enjoyed shopping with her. We would inevitably go down the cookie or chip aisle, and I would easily be able to coax some goodie out of her. We would go aisle to aisle, and I could see her deciding what she wanted. We may have had a conversation while shopping about what we wanted for dinner. We would roam the store for an hour or so and then make our way to the registers with a heaping shopping cart full of food. I don’t remember ever seeing anything like a meal plan for the week or a comprehensive shopping list. I do remember Mom making multiple dinners to cater to our varied taste buds or nothing at all; we would pick our own dinners. I also remember extra trips to the store during the week to pick up things we needed and may have forgotten or run out of.

The next story I want to tell you about is a bit different. This story takes place in central Oregon, where I lived for a couple years. My wife, son, and I happened to live about an hour and forty-five minutes from town. Trips to town included grocery shopping, doctor visits, dinner, bank trips, and anything else we needed in town at the time. The day turned into a nine or ten hour expedition. Therefore, we would do our best to make the trip as efficient and infrequent as possible. We would generally go every two weeks if we could hold out that long. As far as grocery shopping was involved, we would plan ahead: we would make a monthly meal plan and a comprehensive grocery list which had to include toiletries (forgetting the toilet paper would be unthinkable!), cleaners, and clothes. We had a strict budget, as we were living on a small salary. We would walk into the store, divide, and conquer, adhering strictly to the grocery list of course. 

I have had the benefit in my life to see two different perspectives on how to manage the daily living skills that accompany food. As a Daily Living Skills teacher, I now have the opportunity to teach the benefit and pitfalls of both. I am very passionate about the success of my students and have seen the problems that arise if they do not master the areas of menu planning and grocery shopping. Therefore, we have spent a good deal of time teaching these valuable skills in class and training during the week when we are actually planning meals and grocery shopping for residential life.

The first thing the students learn is how to select a healthy meal. They learn about the food groups and how to create or pick a balanced meal that includes all of the food groups. They next learn how to take an inventory of the kitchen. They use a worksheet that has all of the typical items kept, and they count each item to figure out how many will be needed. After creating a meal plan and taking inventory, a student is taught how to make a grocery list. They are presented a template that includes the item, cost, aisle of the item, brand and quantity. Some of those categories are irrelevant for the item, but the students are able to read and use them nonetheless.

After the planning side is accomplished, the students learn how to navigate a grocery store. They learn where to locate items and ask for help if they cannot find something. They pick up etiquette pointers such as not blocking the aisles or talking on the cell phone at the register. Our goal for the students is to get through the store without driving other customers bonkers, and to find everything they need at the best price. How amazing is it that a college-age man/woman is able to look for the best price-per-ounce? 

As the year goes on, the hands-on practice grows. By second semester, they are taking over the meal planning for the dorms and gaining more independence at the grocery store. By second year, the students are doing all of the work themselves, with guidance. By third year, an element of budgeting has been added and the students are learning to plan and shop together with little to no help at all with a $50 budget for two people! 

Needless to say, independence means something different for each individual, and the expectations and goals for each student are different. But the hope would be that everyone who graduates would have the ability to plan healthy meals, take inventory, create a comprehensive grocery list and shop independently on a budget. For some parents and students, this may seem like an impossible goal, a hope that will never be fulfilled. But time and time again, we have seen that it is possible and should be expected.

Remember the two stories at the beginning? Which of the two shoppers do I want my students to be like? I want my students to be disciplined, organized, effective shoppers - like I had to be when I lived in Oregon. 



Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.