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Northwestern FFA Participates in Food Check Out Day
 | | FFA member Jill Sweeney sorted grocery items during Food Check Out Day. |
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Northwestern FFA members, working in conjunction with the Litchfield County Farm Bureau and Marandino Foods of New Hartford, hosted a Food Check Out Day on Thursday, February 20 from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Food Check Out Day is an annual, nationwide activity that is organized by the American Farm Bureau Federation for the purpose of dramatizing the point of affordable food costs in the United States, and generating positive publicity about agriculture.
Food in America is affordable. In fact, between January 1 and February 6, the average American will have earned enough disposable income to pay for his or her food supply for the entire year. In comparison to this, Tax Freedom Day, the day the average American had earned enough money to pay federal, state and local taxes, was April 27 last year, according to the Tax Foundation. According to the latest statistics compiled by the USDA’s Economic Research Service, American families and individuals currently spend, on average, just 10% of their disposable personal income for food.
Students from the Emerging Technology Class participated in this year’s Food Check Out Day. Twelve shoppers consented to having their groceries tallied into two categories, items that were food and those that were not. The totals for these grocery bills was $552.16—with $478.62 in food and $73.54 in non-food items, a non-food percentage of just over 13%. Class members participating in this event—Jill Sweeney and TJ Hiller of Colebrook, Evan Miller and Connie Picard of Winsted, and Bill Benbow of New Hartford—wish to thank Marandino Foods for their assistance in this activity. We also wish to thank those patrons who participated in this activity and announce the winners of $25 gift certificates to Marandino Foods: Betty Mangoni, Karen Carvalho and Joyce Sheehan. The gift certificates were courtesy of the Litchfield County Farm Bureau.
FFA is a national organization of more than 450,000 members preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture. The FFA's mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
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