Fundraiser Beans

Years ago when I was knee high to a grass hopper school fundraisers meant selling almond chocolate bars.  That's the only kind offered which was a shame given some folks don't like nuts in their chocolate bars.  We our kids were in school the fundraiser was also selling chocolate bars and chocolate covered almonds.  At that time we lived in an urban area with if I remember correctly nine elementary schools and one secondary school.  That meant we got hit quite often with kids selling chocolate bars.  How can you say no to such a worthy cause.  The real problem is and especially in these trying economic times and quickly rising food costs many simply to not want to spend their food dollars on chocolate covered almonds or chocolate bars.  The schools have recognized this problem and are now looking at other food items that people are more interested in buying.

Our oldest grandchild is in pre-kindergarten.  Their school fundraiser this year were packets of The Bean Ladies dry bean one pot meal mixes.  They specialize in non-genetically modified Ontario grown products.  In terms of a fundraiser, each package was $5.50 so higher in cost than bulk purchased beans but 50¢ cheaper than buying the same from their online store.  However, $2 from the sale of each package went to the school so really the bean packet cost $3.50 with a $2 donation to a good cause.

I bought the chuckwagon chili (5-7 servings), homestyle hearty bean soup (8-10 servings), lickety-split pea soup (4-6 servings)and Mom's sausage bean casserole (6-8 servings).  Each package has the recipe on the front.  All of the packets have some type of meat (eg. sausage, pork hocks, ground beef) ranging from ½ to 1½ lb as an additional ingredient along with a couple of standard pantry items.  A couple of the mixes have a seasoning packet included.  Even when factoring in the higher cost of the bean mix and the additional ingredients, the result is still on the frugal side.  I will discuss the total costs for each mix as I make them.  I made the Mom's sausage bean casserole on yesterday so watch for the discussion on that this coming Friday.