Download Name Class ______ Family Grocery Shopping Group Project

Name _____________________________________
Class _______
Family Grocery Shopping Group Project – Student Outline
Due: ____________________________
My group members are: ___________________________________________________________
Brief Description
Students work in groups to create menus and shopping lists based on the financial and dietary
restrictions of a profiled family. This project requires you to view the world from someone else's
perspective, to be creative, to be an active listener, and to develop shopping skills. In addition,
this will help you to appreciate and understand the economic, environmental, and health-related
responsibilities involved in providing a family with groceries for one week.
Groups will present a packet of information to the teacher on the due date and if time allows a
presentation to the class. The individual portion of this project is also due on the due date,
turned in separately from the group project.
Objectives
Students will
 plan a menu based on a family profile; that profile includes details about the family's
financial and, in some cases, dietary restrictions.
 shop for the fictional family.
 learn about menu planning, unit pricing, waste management, packaging, and food groups.
 journal about their experiences.
 create graphs and other displays related to lesson findings and conclusions.
My group’s family is: _______________________________
The families are:
The Green Family. The Greens are a family of four with $100 a week to spend on groceries.
The family is comprised of a single mom and three small children -- a 4-year-old girl, a 3-year-old
boy, and a 4-week-old nursing baby.
The Scarlet Family. The Scarlets are a family of four with $175 a week to spend on groceries.
Two members of the family are teenaged boys who like having friends over. Mom and Dad enjoy
having their children's friends over throughout the week for supper, lunch, or late night snacks.
The younger son was recently diagnosed with lactose intolerance. The family also has two cats.
The Mustard Family. The Mustards are a family of four; a grandmother, father, mother, and 5year-old daughter. They can spend $110 a week on groceries. Grandma has high cholesterol and
is on a diet restricted to low-fat foods. Of course nobody wants to make Grandma feel different,
so their meals conform to her diet.
The Plum Family. The Plums are a family of five comprised of a mother, father, 13-year-old
twins, and the mother's sister, who is in her first year of college. The family can spend $120 a
week on food. The twins' aunt chips in an additional $30 a week for food.
The White Family. The Whites are a family of three. The family includes a father and two
teenaged sons. Dad's girlfriend often visits for supper; she has convinced the family to follow a
vegetarian diet. This family has $100 a week to spend on groceries.
Group TO-DO Checklist
 Research guides for healthful eating (for example, the Food Guide Pyramid from the
United States Department of Agriculture.
 Figure out the dietary needs of each family member, especially those with special needs.
Find out what each person can or cannot eat and account for any restrictions in the week's
menu plan. Make a list for each family member.
 Make a rough draft of what groceries are required for a week. You can assume the family
already has some staples in their cupboards -- such as spices, dry goods (for example, flour
or rice), and frozen foods. Arrange your shopping lists into the following categories:
--- fresh fruit and veggies
--- dry/boxed/canned foods
--- meats
--- dairy products
--- baked goods
--- snacks/extras
--- frozen foods
--- miscellaneous
 Make a chart, titled “Shopping List for the ________ Family,” where foods are listed in the
categories. All planned purchases need to be listed in the proper categories.
 Make a chart, titled “Meal plan for the _______ Family.” Have all the (breakfast, lunch,
dinner, and snacks) meals outlined for the entire family. If there are special dietary
restrictions/considerations, those need to be noted. You can include that school age
students eat at school for lunch.
 Go online and do the actual shopping needed to prepare the week's menu online, simply
record prices. Go to http://www.stopandshop.com and click “order online”, then “peapod”
and “new.” From this point you should be able to shop online after you enter your zipcode.
o Do not create an account if you do not have to. If you have to create an account,
limit to 1 person for each group. It will delete any groceries added after 14 days.
There is absolutely no reason to enter payment information.
o Keep a running total of items purchased. If you can print the grocery cart with the
total. If you do this over more than one class period, you may not get your original
cart back with groceries in it. Be sure to write down the total and mark off items.
 Sort the list of groceries purchased by food group, and create an eye-appealing chart for
display. Create bar or pie graphs to illustrate that breakdown.
 Make a chart with a title. Each column should be headed with a food group and foods
should be listed beneath the appropriate heading. Students then total the money spent for
each food group. What percent of the total cost is attributed to each food group?
 Calculate prices by unit (for example, per item in a package of six, per pound of weight…)
 Print out and staple the final product of required pieces. Make sure it is eye appealing,
presentable, and neat. This is due on the due date for a group grade.
 If time allows, your presentation will be a brief summary of your family, dietary issues,
and items they should or should not have.
Individual Student Assessment (title your paper this way)
Typed in a word document, 12 point font, respond and evaluate the project by answering all of
the following questions:
 What part(s) of this project was most helpful to you as a responsible consumer/shopper?
 Should this project be repeated next year? Why or why not?
 What parts of the Consumer Studies Project could have been done better? How?
 Give each group member a grade, list what he/she did, and why that grade was earned.
(you can list this)
In addition to this, you should include your journal style-report on the shopping experience.
 Individually, write a journal-style report on the shopping experience. Each student details
where he or she shopped, what the online store was like, what his or her role in the group
was, what was easy/fun, what was difficult, what was boring, what was surprising… If you
gained a deeper appreciation for the grocery shopping your parents do each week, write
about that too.
o This should be done according to LA standards. It needs to be turned in separately
from group project, typed, with your name and class on it.