Supermarket Shock
Picture yourself walking down the aisles of a supermarket, adding items to your trolley during your weekly shopping. You aren't adding any extra items to your normal list, but when you get to the checkout, the total price is more than you expected - in fact it's more than you can afford. You realise that from now on, feeding the family is going to become a little more difficult. When you get home and unpack the shopping, you realise that you will need to change your shopping habits. And you will not be alone in encountering this problem.
Food security is a wider issue than simple availability, but the current financial situation is creating a situation where food is becoming an issue. This is also part of a wider picture. For how much longer will food be available in the same quantities and at the same price?
Activity 1: Shopping Trip
Reflect on the shopping trip just described or discuss with a group of students.
How does the weekly food shopping connect pupils with key geographical concepts: why is it a geographically significant act?
As food prices rise, what strategies could you use to cut the cost of your weekly shopping bill?
Discuss the strategies that emerged. Consider at least three of them and think about the impact of adopting those strategies on others - who are those 'others' in each case?
As food prices rise, families in the UK are beginning to change the pattern of their consumption.
Consider the following possibilities:
- Buying non-organic items
- Buying eggs from caged hens rather than free range eggs: lowering the 'quality'
- Buying the 'Value' or 'Basics' range items rather than the 'Finest'
- Buying discounted items: dented tins and vegetables
- Doing without one meal a day
- Eating the same basic meal every day
- Stealing food from shops / fields
- Growing your own food: sales of seeds are up, flower beds are being replaced with vegetable patches and there is a growing demand for allotment land
Activity 2: Cutting Costs
The South Yorkshire based company Approved Foods illustrates an element of this change.
Read this newspaper article on the company.
What are your impressions of this? Try to summarise them in no more than 200 words.
How might you use this company as a case study in your teaching?
Activity 3: The Trolley Game
You are now going to explore how this might translate into actuality. This is also an opportunity to personalise geography to young people's experiences. Remember that there will also be different experiences of food and shopping depending on the personal circumstances of the pupil and their family.
Download PowerPoint: The Trolley Game
In this game you have a budget of £10. Choose items from the cards which would be part of a balanced and healthy diet, and allow you to provide 3 good meals for your family. Instructions are on the final slide.
<<< Previous Unit Next Unit >>>
Course Units
 Introduction |
 Getting Started |
 Supermarket Shock |
 Local Food Strategies |
 Global Food Strategies |
 The Perfect Storm? |
 Food Aid |
 Getting the Message Across |
 Making a meal of it |
 Pedagogy and Thinking |
 Plenary |
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