If you ask who’s worried about the cost of groceries right now, the better question would be—who isn’t?
Sandy Veilleux, owner of The Farm, a popular Pensacola year-round fresh farmers’ market, hears her customers’ stories all the time about trying to make ends meet.
“First, you’re going to make sure that your rent is paid, your car is paid, and then you’re going to see what you have left over. The last thing that you’re going to do is fancy stuff, fresh produce might take a back seat because you don’t think you can afford it,” Veilleux said. “We’ll show you that it is affordable to make a better choice for yourself. If you don’t invest in your health, then everything that you’re trying to keep going together isn’t going to happen.”
However, at The Farm and other locations around the Pensacola area, there are ways you can work fresh produce into your shopping cart while saving a little green.
Here are our best tips for stretching your dollar farther while still getting the freshest produce possible, even on a tight budget.
Shop The Farm’s Green Bucket Sunday, try Florida Fresh Dollars
The Farm
6404 Mobile Highway
Pensacola fresh produce market, The Farm, offers Pensacola the opportunity to truly dine in a farm-to-table fashion, with only the best produce and artisan goods curated by Veilleux, who works directly with the farmers she purchases from. Here are some of the best ways to shop for produce at The Farm right now.
If Veilleux sees an opportunity to help her community, she’ll take it and empower her customers to make the most of everything they’re eligible for.
“It’s super important to create a sense of dignity and a sense of respect when people are shopping,” Veilleux said. “It’s a culture, it’s a call to action to make everybody feel seen and feel comfortable. …One of the things that brought us to tears was how people were really insecure about using these programs.”
Green Bucket Sunday started as a little deal to spark joy for the start of the week. However, it’s blossomed into much more than that and has become an incubator for family recipe nights and impromptu food-education lessons that have helped Veilleux change her customers’ relationships with nutrition.
“I’ll tell you every day that we meet a new family, or we get a new family signed up. It’s just as exciting seeing somebody that we started a couple years ago—they’re eating better, they’re eating fresh food, they come in with recipes,” Veilleux continued. “You can see there’s a definite sense of pride in how they’re shopping. The really cool part is they’ll teach other people how to do it, other family members or other neighbors and bring them in to be part of the program as well.”
Check stores for quick-sale sections
Apple Market
1021 Scenic Highway
At Apple Market, East Pensacola Heights’ “Biggest Little Store in Town,” nothing goes to waste. It’s not uncommon to see a slew of fresh produce up for quick sale on a given day, ranging from a $.99 bag of triple-washed kale greens to a head of organic butter lettuce ready for you to take home for lunch or dinner. The quick-sales venture into the ready-made meals, where you’re also sure to find a half-price diced fruit bowl or grilled chicken Caesar salad. As long as you’re prepared to enjoy it in the next day or so, you can score some significant savings.
In addition, Apple Market offers a $5 off $50 promotion that can be used every day while shopping in-store.
Bailey’s Produce and Nursery
4301 N. Davis Highway
Like Apple Market, Bailey’s offers an expansive quick sale section. However, like The Farm, the majority of their store is built around farm-to-table produce. There, you’ll find packages of plump, ripe tomatoes and other farm-fresh delicacies for a dollar if you’re willing to shop the reduced price aisle on the outer perimeter of the store.
Center your grocery list around store BOGOs
Publix
Various locations
Floridians know to reference the Publix Weekly Ad like it’s the Bible when planning their meals for the week. If you access the ad online, you can filter the BOGO deals specifically to produce, saving your hard-earned dollars on items such as buy-one-get-one-free red raspberries, sweet tomatoes and more.
Winn-Dixie
Various locations
Winn-Dixie is another Florida shoppers’ standby, and runs BOGO specials weekly on various items throughout the store. While the sales vary from week to week, it is not unusual to find staples like bags of onions, apples, potatoes and salads BOGO.
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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Produce pro-tips: How to shop the freshest fruits, veggies at the lowest cost
Reporting by Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
