COLUMBIA, S.C. — With school out for the summer, that means kids will be getting more of their meals at home, But with inflation still high, that can put a strain on the family budget.
“Prices have went up drastically” parent Mae Davis said.
As summer approaches, kids are out of school and spending more time at home. Parents like Davis say with the increase in food prices buying groceries has become difficult.
“My adult son stays with me, and then I have three grandchildren that live with me. Prices have gone up so bad and with school being out, it costs more now. I'm having to work extra hours to make the stretch,” Davis said.
Abby Deal is a registered dietician with Prisma Health. She says eating healthy is crucial for children.
“This is kind of the critical time where we’re teaching them life-long skills for how to eat healthy. It’s not only about brain development now and keeping their energy levels high so that they can learn in school and be active with their friends and be active in the summer, but also learn ways to prevent disease for the future,” Deal said.
According to Deal, there are multiple ways families can stretch their dollar and eat healthy.
“With the different ingredients that we're buying, making sure that we don't only have one meal plan for them, that we're maybe using the items that we're buying for multiple meals. We're using it tonight for dinner and then leftovers. We're using it in a quiche the next day for breakfast, but then later we're using whatever we have leftover as side items for lunch,” Deal said.
Deal says ensuring your meals are packed with fruits and vegetables is key.
“Something I always like to mention to parents, kids, anyone is that fresh, frozen and canned those all count towards our fruit, and vegetable allotment. So just knowing how to buy those. First when talking about fresh fruits and vegetables, I like to think about buying in bulk. When you're looking at buying in bulk rather than buying one or two apples from the separate bin of apples versus buying them in the package they come in where there's multiple, generally you're gonna get things at a cheaper cost when buying in bulk versus buying single items,” she said.
Meat can also be a high expense, Deal says.
"Remember, we don't always necessarily have to have a meat based protein, but beans are always a great option too. Beans, peas, seeds, nut butters, all those are options for protein as well that can be sometimes less costly," Deal said.
If you’re wondering how to balance snacks and healthy food options, Deal says she recommends following the US Department of Agriculture's my plate example.
“It's a blueprint for what our plate should look like every time we eat, and that kind of gives you a good roadmap for the things that we should buy at the grocery store. We're looking for our protein, we're varying that. Our fruits and vegetables we kind of talked about different ways to purchase those and then it goes into our grain so making half of those whole grains and then our dairy section,” she said.
Deal added, “Right now for our younger kids brain development is going to be our number one. and so we want them to be healthy mentally for that they can succeed in school they can succeed in their social environment and their home environment.”