I was really looking forward to my visit to Whole Foods Market Corporate Center and I was not disappointed. Whole Foods has had a history of providing healthy foods to consumers since its start in 1980. The original founders had experience in small health food stores and had the dream of putting together a large healthy market featuring whole foods without lots of processing.
Through my classes at the Institute for Integrated Nutrition, I had read about Whole foods 3Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s ANDI system of identifying nutrient densities and had heard that Whole Foods used this as a part of their consumer education program. I wanted to learn as much as possible about how Whole Foods is helping people make better food choices. I got an opportunity to visit with Robert Shepherd, Assistant Store Team Leader and Jess Kolko, Nutrition Sr. Research Analyst. They are constantly looking at ways to help people make healthy food buying decisions.
The ANDI system is on the Whole Foods website, along with some other very helpful information. However, I learned that they have found that the most effective way to help consumers is to have informative displays and details about food suppliers available to shoppers. People are starting to ask more about where and how a food is grown.
As an example, Whole Foods now has a rating system for food sourcing of fruits and vegetables. Producers must meet a high standard of quality to achieve a Good, Better or Best rating based on farming practices, environmental concern and social responsibility. To meet a “Good” rating, a farm must have initiated 16 steps to protect soil, air and human health in addition to producing quality produce with GMO transparency, and no prohibited pesticides. Requirements are more stringent to meet the Better and Best ratings. The displays are attractive and I was impressed with a wide variety of products including an entire section devoted to sprouted grains which is unusual and something about which I want to learn more. Sprouted whole grains have higher nutrition value which was illustrated by the information I could read right there in the grocery aisle.
Whole Foods Market’s goal is to be the healthiest grocery store in America. I had heard that the company had experienced growth issues since going public a few years ago. However, I was pleased to see that Whole Foods is very focused on their tradition of putting the customer first. If you would like to see a Whole Foods Store in your community, go on line to www.wholesfoodsmarket.com and let them know. Go to the Customer Service tab. They pay attention to the interest expressed on their website by members of a community when considering a new location, so let’s let them hear from us in the Inland Northwest.
Food Trucks
Food Truck ParkNot only does Austin boast of being the “Live Music” capital of the world, it also lays claim to being the food truck capital of the nation! Texans claim that the origins of food trucks started with the horse drawn chuck wagons of the cattle drive era. According to Austin Eater.com there are over 1000 food trucks in the city of Austin. Why so many? It appears that when some cities thought of food trucks as a nuisance, Austin embraced the idea and created specialty food truck parks to accommodate the increased demand. Austin has long been on the forefront of encouraging innovative entrepreneurs. These trucks feature casual and sophisticated gourmet dishes.
Food truck chefWe chose to have lunch at one of the food truck parks, Barton Springs Picnic. The Picnic claims to be Austin’s premier food truck/trailer park located on Barton Springs Road in the heart Austin. The 8 trucks at this location offered a wide variety of dishes and flavors. They were arranged in a circle around a covered picnic area. We enjoyed most the truck called “Hey! You Gonna Eat, or What?” (I thought that was the slogan but it was actually the name.) As you can imagine, the Chef from that truck had quite a lively if not irreverent personality, but what fun it was to talk with him because he came out to interact with the customers. I would love to have his recipe for his Apple Chutney as it was the best I have tasted. That day we also tried “Bullet Proof Coffee” from the Daily Juice. I think I am going to have to develop a taste for butter in coffee to really enjoy that one, but definitely a trendy new energy drink.
When you go to Austin, you can go online to AustinEater.com to locate all of the food trucks in town and their specialties.
Recent Comments