The economic crisis that currently strikes the western world forces a majority of people to become more conscientious of how and where they spend their money, including money spent on food. People tend to choose cheaper kinds of food products and to buy more private brand products as price becomes an even stronger factor in their decision.
To compensate for the increase in food prices some people eat less, they cook smaller portions or eat fewer meals and buy less quality food. Needless to say, they limit the meals they eat out. All in all not very funny!
Food Lion, Delhaize Group’s largest banner in the US (with headquarters near Charlotte, North Carolina) decided to bring some ‘light’ into the current dark situation, by organizing a special recipe contest, meant to boost consumer awareness of food that is both nutritious and affordable.
Charlotte-area bloggers were challenged by Food Lion to compete in its first ‘Frugal Cook-Off’ and create nutritious, low-cost meals for a family of four using Food Lion store brands , as well as fresh produce and meat options available at Food Lion stores.
Eleven bloggers invited to participate in the event were divided into teams of three and given a cooking challenge to use no more than USD 15 worth of items shopped from an onsite Food Lion pantry of store brand products.
The winning team included Katie from Charlotte Mom Favorites, Wendy of Charlotte Smarty Pants and Kelly of Foodie Fresh. The bloggers created the winning dish, an Asian-inspired chicken with curry, roasted carrots and rice pilaf with soy sauce, in 30 minutes using items shopped from an onsite Food Lion pantry of store brand products, and for a total cost of USD 15 or less. The bloggers were judged on creativity, taste and awarded points for being frugal.
The three challenge winners received two USD 250 Food Lion gift cards and all other participants received two USD 100 Food Lion gift cards.
‘The ‘Frugal Cook-Off’ Challenge was a great way for Food Lion to reach out to local social media influencers and provide them the opportunity to share their experience with the challenge and our brands with their followers,” said Maia McNair, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager for Food Lion.
Recipes will be posted to www.foodlion.com in the near future, so stay tuned!