Cooking with locally sourced ingredients has a variety of benefits for your community.

Everyone wants to support their local community. But not everyone has enough time or resources to donate to local charities, volunteer their weekends, or otherwise help out. The good news is that there’s a simple way to support your community and your family. The best part, you don’t even have to leave home… Meal kits that are sent to your door and use locally sourced ingredients will give you the perfect opportunity to pitch in right from the comfort of your own home. Today, we’re going to take a look at how cooking with local ingredients will benefit your community and your family.

Help Support Local Farmers

Even though you may not see a farm on your way to work every morning, there’s definitely one either nearby or not too far away. Farms are part of your community and are hard at work every day.

Buying food from a farmer’s market or meal kit delivery service that gets their food from a local farm whenever possible helps local farmers.

More Hiring Opportunities

Even the hardest working farmer can’t cultivate and deliver locally sourced ingredients all by themselves. In addition to employees that the farmers hire for their part of the process, there are workers along the way that have been employed by transportation companies, farmers markets, meal kit subscription services, and others. When you buy locally produced food, you’re helping to support local economies in ways that you may not have considered before.

Better for the Environment

As everyone knows, there’s been a huge push in recent years for everyone to lower their carbon footprint. A big component of this is the reduction of fossil fuels, which is why more people are riding bikes and purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles. One of the easiest ways to help out, is by cooking with locally sourced ingredients. Less transportation of food items means less fossil fuel usage.

Contamination is Less Likely

Food safety has always been a big concern. Its importance has become a hot topic as people have become more enlightened to the dangers of contamination. Although ingesting spoiled or contaminated food won’t happen on a daily basis, there’s always a risk involved. Since locally produced food is handled by fewer people as it goes from farm to table, there’s a lower chance of contamination.

Greater Nutritional Value

Many foods are filled with nutritional content, but their level of nutrition will decrease over time. To optimize the number of nutrients and their positive impact, it’s always better to eat proteins, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables sooner rather than later. Since local food will be fresher, you can count on more of its nutrients remaining intact by the time you use them in a meal.

Fresh Food Tastes Better

Let’s face it – we’ve all eaten a meal consisting of old food that had lost its flavor or tasted bad. The truth is that fresh food tastes better than food that has sat around for a while. By relying on meal kits that use locally produced ingredients, you can be guaranteed that the food will be as fresh as possible.

No Need for Preservatives

Check any canned or boxed food and you’ll undoubtedly be subjected to tons of ingredients that are extremely hard to pronounce. Many of these are preservatives that are necessary to keep foods fresh for weeks, months, or even years. Although preservatives definitely have their place in food sustainability, they’re always best when they’re not needed. That’s exactly the case with local foods that come fresh off the farm.

Support Well-Balanced Diets

When we discuss locally produced ingredients, we’re talking about healthy foods such as proteins, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. These items are necessary for a well-balanced diet. This type of diet helps you feel energized, maintain a healthy weight, and maintain good functions. This is much better for your body than eating processed and packaged foods.

Negates Food Sensitivity

Many people have either mild or severe sensitivities to certain foods. This is mainly because they’re subjected to preservatives, hormones, and other food chemicals. In some cases, these foods can cause digestion issues that can prevent people from getting the nutrients they need for a healthy diet. Since locally sourced ingredients aren’t subjected to preservatives, allergens, or hormones, there’s a much lower chance that food sensitivities will cause an issue.

Contact Chef Ami for Locally Sourced Ingredients

Chef Ami has created the best meal delivery kits in Tampa, Gainesville, and Ocala that use locally produced ingredients whenever possible. Their subscription service offers a variety of meal plans for individuals, couples, and families. If you have any questions or would like to sign up, give us a call at (813) 773-4719 today.