Meijer was facing three compelling realities as it put together its recently released Simply Cook: Easy, Healthy Meals cookbook.
First, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Midwestern grocery and discount chain in had committed its resources to help food pantries in its market areas and already was doing so in a major way.
Second, executives of Meijer realized as well as anyone the huge problem of food waste that co-exists so frustratingly with continuing hunger in the United States and across the world. As much as 40 percent of the foodstuffs produced — even in an economy and with a supply chain as advanced as America’s — simply goes to waste.
And, third, Meijer people understood that if they could help food pantries and their customers do a better job of utilizing the goods that were streaming into the pantries, they could create a win-win-win situation — for the people, the pantries … and OK, for Meijer, too.
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So the company came up with a very practical way to attack the mismatch between the ample resources that are actually available and the capability of anti-hunger forces to battle food insecurity by getting enough food into the mouths of enough hungry people, enough of the time.
That’s why the new cookbook and food-management manual for those who frequent food pantries is such a useful initiative. Simply Cook: Easy, Healthy Meals is a 48-page guide that features recipes using ingredients frequently found on the shelves of food pantries.
“You see all this food and you have to create healthy solutions for families,” Janet Emerson, EVP of retail operations for the 213-store chain in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and, now, Wisconsin, told me. “What do you do, for example, when what you have in front of you is kale and gleaned potatoes?”
Meijer has been developing relationships with food pantries and food banks in its markets since 2008. Emerson explained that a particular challenge to many customers of these places comes from the fact that most food pantries “take every donation they can get; they don’t say ‘no’ to things. They have a blend of resources coming in, including a lot of mundane [foodstuffs] that people want to give.”
In addition, she said, many needy people who rely on food pantries “have limited food-preparation knowledge and capabilities. They don’t know how simple it is, for example, to make applesauce.”
Meijer also saw a way to improve the environmental sustainability of food pantries by providing Simply Cook. “We wanted one result to be that less food was thrown away,” Emerson said.
So the book was prepared by healthy-living advisors and dietitians to share nutritional and food-safety tips, bust food myths and offer basic recipes. There’s a section on nutrition and meal-planning which, for instance, explains how to read government-mandated labels on food packaging. A graphic that explains food-serving sizes in everyday terms, such as that one tablespoon of salad dressing is the volume of about three dice. One chapter addresses food myths such as “canned and frozen foods are not as healthy as fresh.”
The book also includes sections on basic cooking tools, food safety and storage, and simple recipes relying on ingredients such as canned chicken, canned vegetables and rice. “Complex carbohydrates like rice can make you feel full faster, so you tend to eat less,” the book says. There is a 30-day meal planner and a model shopping list.
While the only thing in Simply Cook that in any way could be interpreted as marketing is a note in the corner of a page that “store brands offer the same quality” as branded-name goods, “often at a lower price,” so the reader should “look for Meijer brand products whenever you shop at Meijer,” Emerson asserted that increasing store sales was not the driving force behind the cookbook.
“It’s not about Meijer when it comes to this, but about being a good partner to food pantries.”
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Published Apr 8, 2015 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT / 11pm BST / 12am CEST