By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Have you ever gone to the grocery store to buy kale and ended up with a box of Twinkies in your cart? A local health educator might have a program to help put you on the right track to eating better.
Jessica Moffitt, Prospectively Healthy certified health education specialist, is offering Grocery List Assist.
For a fee, Moffitt teams with her client to create menu plans and then helps the client use Dillons’ online Grocery Pickup service or another online grocery shopping app to select the groceries needed for the week.
Dillons Grocery Pickup, formerly known as ClickList, has been offered in Hays since July. Moffitt is just getting Grocery List Assist off of the ground.
Moffitt said many of her clients said they struggled with grocery shopping.
“One of the things I hear a lot from my clients is not necessarily the difficulty to eat healthier but the difficultly in knowing what to pick out at the grocery store or how to get quality produce that is going to last or just (having) the time commitment to do so,” she said.
Moffitt establishes a menu plan with input from her client. She then goes into an online grocery shopping account and puts all the items into their grocery list. The client checks the cart to make sure they don’t already have items on the list, then the client arranges for grocery pickup and payment through the app.
Dillons Grocery Pickup app allows customers to arrange for pickup up to three days in advance. You have an hour window to pick up the groceries. Dillons will load the groceries in your vehicle for you. Right now, Dillons is offering the first three pickups free with a charge of $4.95 per pickup after that, according to its mobile app. Pickups are available from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the 1902 Vine store in Hays.
Dillons has hundreds of digital coupons available through its app, but paper coupons can also be used at pickup. Dillons currently is unable to accept government benefits (including WIC and SNAP) as payment, according to its website. You also can’t add prescriptions to Grocery Pickup at this time, but Dillons said it is working to add this feature. See Dillons website for more details on the service.
Grocery List Assist services start at $40 per week. Although Moffitt lives in Hays, she said she will work with any grocery app in any location.
Moffitt will cater her meal plans to specific dietary restrictions and preferences such as low-salt or vegan. She also tries to work with few ingredients, minimal prep time and simple kitchen utensils. However, if you have a slow cooker or pressure cooker and like to use those tools, she will work those in also.
She also works to reduce waste, so if you have leftover ingredients, she will work with you to incorporate those into future menus.
“I also like taking things that we all like to eat like macaroni and cheese. I have an amazing recipe for macaroni and cheese that I love to start people out with,” she said. “You can still do things like macaroni and cheese and hamburger and lasagna, and you just make better choices in that recipe to make it a little bit healthier.
Moffitt sends a PDF copy of the recipes to clients and then touches base by phone with the client once a week to discuss how the meals went.
Moffitt recommends meal planning for anyone trying to get a better handle on their eating and diet.
“It is a really helpful tool I use in my home to make sure we have the meals ready for the week and we know what we are going to cook and we have all of the groceries,” she said. “It also reduces impulse purchases and convenience store shopping, which is great for saving time and money for the client themselves. I also think it helps us make healthier choices just because of the structure that comes from it rather than making decisions based on convenience or mood or emotions that we are feeling at the moment.”
Grocery List Assist and its menu planning feature can help clients make necessary diet changes for health reasons.
“I think the biggest thing people need to consider when they are faced with obstacle — when they are faced with a prescreening diagnosis or a full-blown diagnosis like diabetes or hypertension is to understand you have to make a lifestyle change. It is not a diet that is going to end in six months or a year. It’s a commitment you are going to have to make for the rest of your life.
“With that commitment, I think it is easier to make one better choice at a time. It might be in the direction of total health rather than trying to do everything all at once or overnight.”
One month, she might talk about reducing sugary beverages, and the next month she might help you work on decreasing sugar in desserts.
Moffitt noted Grocery List Assist can be a temporary tool. Once you have a library of recipes, you can create your own menu plans.
“Hopefully, it is just a stepping stone to move them in the right direction, so they can make these choices themselves and their own meal plans,” she said.
Moffitt will be offering cooking demonstrations and health lectures again this fall and winter through the Hays Recreation Commission. She offers classes for adults and children 3 through 7.
For a complete list of classes, see her webpage or check out Prospectively Healthy on Facebook.