Giving Back to Help Others Make the Switch with Jennie-O {SIMPLE Service Project}
You guys are always reading about my family’s challenges with weight loss and our desire to live healthier along with the changes that we are making. When I heard about this month’s SIMPLE Service Project, I just knew it would fit in perfectly with our changes. I told you earlier in the month about our challenge to stop eating pizza, so I wanted to give you an update and let you know what we did to give back in our community!!
This was our homemade pizza from before the challenge. We have been relying on pizza for too long and realized we are spending way too much!! We decided to calculate how much we might spend on pizza in a month and see how much we could save by Making the Switch to Jennie-O products.
Here’s the breakdown of the different ways we eat pizza during the month:
♦ Brookshire’s (Deli pizza or frozen) = $13.98 ♦ Pizza Hut (Large, stuffed crust and breadsticks) = $33.96 << Yikes!! ♦ Little Caesars (Hot N Ready and breadsticks) = $15.26 ♦ Homemade (dough from scratch) = $23ish
If we ate pizza each of these ways once per week, we would be averaging $21.30 per week just on pizza. That is…IF we only did that once per week.
Shopping for Jennie-O Make the Switch Challenge
We headed out to Walmart to look at what was available now that we are past the busiest shop time of the month. If you remember, we had some trouble earlier in the month when shopping because it was just after everyone was paid and the shelves were getting bare.
We found a much better stock this time and were able to fill up a cart full. Here are a few of the items were were able to find.
Check out our fun day and “interesting” {original} shop in my Google + Album!!
Jennie-O Turkey Burgers
This past week I was on vacation so I cooked dinner one night and made these Jennie-O Turkey burgers with some really yummy bacon!!
You can see more of this dinner preparation and our preparation for donation shop in my Jennie-O Make the Switch slideshow.
Giving Back to Help Others
As I mentioned briefly in my first post, my family has been to the local food bank in the past when we needed help. We were extremely grateful for the food provided, but we noticed that the food donated for families to receive was not always the healthiest. We decided that with the money we saved from not eating pizza this month, we would donate Jennie-O products to the food bank.
We looked at prices on the Jennie-O products needed to replace our pizza meals for one month. At $6.98 for one box of Turkey Burgers and $1 for a package of Turkey Franks (as well as the sides included to make a meal), we decided that the four meals replaced could be around $15!!
We weren’t exactly prepared to spend $70+ in donations (How in the world do we DO that?!!) but we were able to get a good sampling of each of the Jennie-O products that we saw on the shelf. We ended up spending around $45.
It didn’t occur to me until I went online to read about how to donate the food that we weren’t able to donate the meat that we had bought directly to the food bank. Ultimately, we ended up keeping the Jennie-O products and going back to Walmart to pick up a gift card for $25 and talking to the food bank about assisting with a food drive in the future.
We brought them information about the Champions for Kids SIMPLE Service Project and the Jennie-O Make The Switch Challenge and they were thrilled to hear about all of the projects involved in helping families become healthier.
Learn more about the Jennie-O Make the Switch Challenge at Champions for Kids.
Find out more about what others are doing by following Champions for Kids on Twitter (@Champions4Kids) and Champions for Kids on Facebook. Learn more about Jennie-O products at the Jennie-O website.
Are you ready to Make the Switch?!! What could you give up to be more healthy and give to others in need?!!
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. All opinions and stories are my own. #JennieOCFK #CBias #SocialFabric
I don’t eat pork or a lot of red meat either. So I love that Jennie O makes a lot of products with Turkey. The TUrkey Bacon is amazing. Great way to cut the fat!
It’s crazy how much you can save when you go from buying pizza at a restaurant to making homemade meals. I am glad you were able to help out those in your community!
Kecia recently posted..Making the Switch to Help Others
I’ve never tried turkey burgers…..I really need to be more aggressive with my weight loss, so I’m pinning your page!
Dede recently posted..Great summer deals on Plum District….Father’s Day and birthdays!
Those turkey burgers are SO good – even my husband prefers them sometimes now.
You could always use Jennie-O Turkey Bacon as a homemade pizza topping sometime, if you do reintroduce pizza to your family’s rotation again
Views From the ‘Ville recently posted..Honoring And Remembering Those We’ve Lost On Memorial Day
I didn’t realize the Jennie-O had so many different products! We are trying to eat healthier too and these products would be a great addition. Kudos to you for giving to your local food bank!
Cecile recently posted..Lovestruck by Alisa Boniello
Great post! I love pizza and eat it a lot so I liked reading that you do (or did) too. You have inspired me to try to eat healthier with the Jennie-O products and the giving back effort!
What kind hearts your family has! Thank you so much for sharing your Jennie-O recipes and for reaching out to help others in your community! May your efforts inspire others to become ONE of MILLIONS making a SIMPLE difference to help children in need!
Wow! It does really add up. I want to give that turkey bacon a try. I need to find someone who carries it around here.
Great job with your project. I love your plan B of the gift card for the food bank. I know sometimes money can help out exactly how they need it.