When a child goes on a field trip to their local grocery store they are learning about all sorts of new things!
- Discover the behind-the-scenes activities of the grocery store (e.g., meat department, bakery, and
- produce department).
- Students are introduced to the food pyramid and healthy eating.
- Recognize their favorite food and non-food products through advertising.
- Become familiar with the farm-to-market system and how their food is sourced (local vs. non-local)
- Explore the different roles (e.g., cashier, manager, stocker, bagger) of the grocery store.
- Try samples of food or merchandise in the store.
- Experience the concept of paying for goods and services with money.
In Southern California there are 4 local stores that offer Grocery Store Field Trips for Kids! Whether you are looking to set up a grocery store field trip for your homeschool co-op, school group or scout troop, make sure to call ahead to get all the details.
1. Bristol Farms (Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, Rolling Hills, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, West Hollywood, Westchester, Westwood, Newport Beach, Westlake Village, La Jolla and Palm Desert)
Bristol Farms offers a FREE 45 minute tour of their store for kids! The idea group size is 15 – 20 children. Kids have the opportunity to go through each department within the store and see how they operate. Depending upon the age of your group, older children may hold a lobster while younger children decorate cupcakes.
2. Trader Joes (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties)
Trader Joe’s is known to have some of the friendliest staff in customer service! They are more than willing to go out of their way to help their customers. The same is true when you go on a FREE field trip to your local Trader Joe’s store. During a tour, students learn about the daily operations of running a grocery store, explore health snack and lunch options and are given a little goody bag to take home at the end of the tour.
3. Ralph’s Speak Out – It’s Your Earth! (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties)
From the website, Speak Out. It’s Your Earth! is a FREE program that opens the doors of your neighborhood Ralphs store to teach valuable lessons about making choices during the shopping experience and how those choices impact the environment. Conservation and environmental concepts, including how students’ actions impact the world, are explored during this community-based learning adventure.
Each stop provides important information about how the store is reducing its environmental footprint and how students can use those concepts in their own lives. Children learn about practices that are good for their health and the planet’s health. The field trips are reviewed by Field Trip Factory’s expert educators, and create memories that last a lifetime.
To prepare your students, pre-field trip activities are available under Resources! Post-field trip activities are available after the trip to reinforce content.
The tour is ONLY available in April and advance reservations are required.
4. Whole Foods Market (Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura Counties)
Whole Foods Market offers FREE tours for children at all of their local Southern California stores. Tours can be tailored to meet the individual needs of your specific school group or community organization.
Tours can focus on:
- Shopping for Value
- Quick Meal Fixes
- Local Foods
- Healthy Eating
- Seafood Sustainability
- Smart Snacks and Healthy Lunchbox Ideas
- And more!
Tours are 45 minutes to one hour in length. Please call your local Whole Foods Market and ask to speak with their Marketing Director for full details.
Happy Field Tripping!
Disclosure: This post is for informational purposes only. All points of view are always 100% my own.