Organic food has always had a high class stigma. Many organic food stores have prices that are unbearably high, leaving lower income families to alternative stores that sell food that is actually detrimental for their health. Thankfully, organic food is becoming more and more accessible to less fortunate families. However, very few people seem to be aware of this.

I grew up in what some might call a “crunchy” family. We kept a paleo diet, which consists of no grains or dairy, for most of my life. We shopped almost exclusively at Whole Foods and spent every Sunday at the local farmer’s market buying fresh produce whenever possible. We tried to eat locally and farm-to-table restaurants were our go-tos on a family night out.

When I moved away for college, I fully intended to keep this up. I set a food budget for each month, and I found all the local farmers markets. I was ready to be healthy and clean. Then I took my first trip to Whole Foods by myself, blew $300 in half an hour, and vowed never to shop there again.

How had my parents fed a family of four on Whole Foods prices? We were never rich by any means, and the more people I talked to the more I was told it was totally unreasonable to be shopping at health food stores as an 18-year-old.

This infuriated me. Was I not allowed to have a healthy diet because of my age? Why did my budget hinder me from such options? I refused to accept this so called “fact of life,” buckled down, and did some research.

I came across some wonderful blogs and podcasts I still subscribe to to this day, such as Wellness Mama (wellnessmama.org) and Food Babe (foodbabe.com). These sources led me to the holy grail, the butter to my bread, my one and only grocery store for the rest of my life: Thrive Market.

Thrive Market is a website that is a perfect marriage of Costco, Whole Foods and Amazon Prime, in the sense that it is an online, wholesale health food store. Just like Costco, you pay a yearly fee of $70, and you make up that much in savings the first time you purchase groceries online.

I’ll be honest, the first time I ordered from here, I went a little crazy and bought over $100 worth of stuff. But the brilliance is I saved over $300, which is how much it would have cost me if I had gone to Whole Foods.

They don’t yet sell perishables, due to shipping cost, but according to their latest press release that is soon to come. So what should you do for your produce? Go to farmer’s markets.

Farmer’s markets are the absolute way to go, whether you are purchasing groceries online or from the jewel. Not only are you supporting your local economy, but you can buy organic foods at such low costs! I personally buy everything from fruits and vegetables to eggs and goat milk from my local farmer’s market. These are generally run through your local parks and recreation department, and just about every town has one.

So if there are all these affordable, healthy and organic options out there, why aren’t more people aware?

We need to get the word out there. We need to put more farmer’s markets in lower income areas. We need to take charge of our country’s health and show people that there are alternatives to the junk they’ve been eating. We need to show people that anyone can eat healthy, no matter the budget.