Go local this week!
Would you give $6.25 of your weekly spending to help generate $300 million for the local economy?
Sound like a gimmick, or too good to be true?
Not according to Victoria Wesseler, an Indiana food blogger and founder of Going Local Week. Wesseler says that if half of our Indiana families shifted just $6.25 of their weekly food budget to the purchase of Indiana grown or produced food, they would pump $300 million annually into the Indiana economy.
Some would argue that $300 million is conservative because a dollar spent on local food inevitably turns over a number of times in the community because producers spend their dollars locally as well.
A study on the impact of local food dollars spent in the Seattle area demonstrated that for every $100 spent on local food, the local community benefitted by $200-$500 in economic impact. What that could mean for the Indiana economy then is not $300 million, but $600 million or even $1.5 billion dollars per year. A pretty significant number when you consider the initial investment is just $6.25 a week per family.
So what about you? Will you start going local? Here are some ideas to get you started:
Consider Green B.E.A.N. Delivery (formerly Farm Fresh Delivery), an online home delivery service that provides organic and natural groceries to its members. Or New Day Meadery, a maker of honey wine, or Heartland Distillers, Indiana’s first new distillery since Prohibition. There are multiple Indy-area producers to consider. Who would you recommend?
