Market Fresh Grocery

From Farm to Market

Step into the shoes of clerk, grocery stock person, and customer. This bustling grocery store is filled with dozens of familiar food products right from our farm distribution center.

Here in the Market Fresh Grocery, visitors see the close connection between the raw ingredients grown on the Prairie Farm and the food that ends up in Market Fresh Grocery. They learn about grocer roles, the uses and value of money, and helping others through the harvest to market cycle.

In addition, children have opportunities to use math skills when sorting food, restocking shelves, checking out food items, and making change for customers. They also use language and literacy skills when making and reading grocery lists, and restocking items back on shelves.

While working in the grocery store and distribution center, they may have a sense of accomplishment by finishing jobs such as:

• Sorting vegetables into the produce bin
• Weighing fruits and veggies on a balance scale
• Checking the meat case, frozen foods aisle, and fresh flower cart
• Placing items in kid-sized grocery carts and baskets
• Scanning groceries and ring up sales at checkout counters

Visitors can take their basket through the store's back exit to the farm, so the planting and harvest cycle starts all over again.

Learn more about these topics through the books below. Many of these books are at the Brookings Public Library.

Ages 0-3 Maisy Goes Shopping, Luci Cousins* Caillou: Outside My House, Chouette Publishing Staff* Our Corner Grocery Store, Joanne Schwartz & Laura Beingessner* Elmo’s Big Word Book, Mary Beth Nelson, Laurent Linn, & John Barrett* Bebe Goes Shopping, Susan Middleton Elya & Steven Salerno Ages 3-5 Eight Animals on the Town, Sue Middleton Elya & Lee Chapman Smithsonian’s Backyard, "Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane", Victoria Sherrow Why?: The Best Ever Question and Answer Book about Nature, Science, and the World Around You, Catherine Ripley & Scot Ritchie Just Enough Carrots, Stuart Murphy & Frank Remkiewicz Working at a Grocery Store, Katie Marisco Ages 6-8 Community Helpers, "Supermarket Managers", Mary Firestone Start to Finish, "From Sea to Salt", Robin Nelson* Because of Winn Dixie, Kate DiCamillo Ages 9-13 Reading Rainbow, "Farm Life"* Body Science, "Digesting Food", Richard Walker What the World Eats, Faith D’Aluisio & Peter Menzel* Grocery Shopping by the Numbers, Cecila Minden*

  *At the time of writing, these books were not found at the Brookings Library.