Ryan Garrett (from left), Matthew Harris and Deryk Gacanich weigh produce, which they helped purchase and donate to a local food pantry. The exercise was part of Food Check-Out Day.
The food is being donated to The Storehouse in Socorro for distribution to needy families and individuals.
Socorro County Farm Bureau donated $250 of food for the local storehouse. John Brooks Supermart matched that amount, bringing the total to $500 worth of food.
The final tally was $498.89 in food selected by the nine students. The students who collected food were Jessica Pound, Jaden Jones, Shannon del Curto, Janell Lopez, Samantha Schnell, Melanie Harris, Ryan Garrett, Matthew Harris and Deryk Gacanich.
Ray Hurtgen, manager of John Brooks Supermart, said the event is important for the community and the future farmers.
“This is for the FFA and 4-H kids to learn the value of what they’re doing,” Hurtgen said. “The farming community has been good to us, and good for us. In this way we are helping people, with the food going to the Storehouse.”
He said this is the sixth year Supermart has been involved.
“The FFA and farmers are our better customers, and now it’s our turn to help them, which is helping the families in our town who need it the most,” he said.
Hurtgen has managed Supermart, now officially known as John Brooks Supermart, since 1984.
Food Checkout Day is the day of the year when the average household has earned enough money to buy one year’s worth of food.
Dan Kloss, president of the Socorro Farm and Livestock Bureau, said that between January 1 and February 4, the average American family will have earned enough income to pay for the year’s entire food supply.
In comparison to Food Check-Out Day, Tax Freedom Day – the day the average American earned enough money to pay federal, state and local taxes – April 26, three days later than last year, according to the Tax Foundation.
“Food Checkout Day is February 5,” Kloss said. “This year it will take the average American 37 days to pay for all the food he or she will eat in 2008.”
The disposable personal income spent for a family’s food has declined over the last 25 year.
“In 1970 Food Checkout Day would have been 11 days earlier,” said Terry Towner, chairperson of the Farm Bureau’s women’s committee.
She said according to the USDA, America’s families and individuals currently spend, on average, just 10.7 percent of their income for food.
“Not only is America’s food supply the world’s safest, but it is also the most affordable,” Towner said. “It speaks well of our nation’s increasing standard of living, which would certainly be reduced without the affordable, domestic food supply, produced by America’s farmers and ranchers.”
Towner said activities like Food Checkout Day allow farmers to illustrate their contribution to the American way of life.
“Farmers are disappearing. The average age of a farmer is older every year,” she said. “And farmland is slowly disappearing. Only two percent of the population supplies the food everyone in America eats.”
The grocery sacks of food were delivered from the Supermart parking lot on California Street to the storehouse food bank at the Presbyterian Church, with help of Kloss and his John Deere tractor.
About 300 farmers are members of the Socorro County Farm Bureau.
