Next time you take your cart through the grocery store, try the Super Cart Challenge.

“It’s simple to detect whether or not you have a Super Cart,” said Hy-Vee dietitian Amy Pleimling. “If you find more junk food than healthy food in your cart, then you don’t have a Super Cart.”

Because she would like to see more Super Carts rolling down the aisles at Albert Lea Hy-Vee, Pleimling created the Super Cart Challenge. Since she kicked off the program on Jan. 17, more than 100 people have joined.

In a nutshell, the program rewards people for purchasing healthy food items.

“There’s no cost to join and the benefits are priceless, if you consider a healthier lifestyle important,” Pleimling said.

How it works is simple. Step 1 is simply picking up a starter envelope from Pleimling. The envelope contains a Super Cart Challenge grocery list, a fact sheet and three punch cards.

For each grocery item on the list purchased, participants get one punch on a punch card. When holes have been punched through all 20 spots on a punch card, participants get one item of their choice from the grocery list for free.

The Super Cart Challenge grocery list contains 55 super foods. Some items are common purchases for many shoppers, including fruits and vegetables, yogurts, cereal, pasta, tuna, crackers, milk and bread. Other items, such as soy milk, flax seed and edamame — green soybeans — are less common.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to how these foods were chosen,” said Pleimling. “I tried to put popular items and a few unique things on it to encourage trying new foods, in a range of prices that wouldn’t scare people away.”

Trying new foods has been the advantage for Sheri Hird, who joined the program in January. She doesn’t eat much meat, so she decided to try the chia seeds from the list to boost her protein levels. She said the seeds are very small, like poppy seeds, and expand when they get moist. She has started adding them to smoothies, salads and even tuna salad.

“They don’t really have a flavor but they get soft and kind of gel-like,” she said.

The program also has prompted Kelly Becker of Albert Lea to try new things, including whole wheat tortillas and multi-grain chips. She said they have a heartier taste than the regular white flour tortillas and yellow corn chips she ate before.

Becker was already trying to eat a healthy diet when she decided to join the Super Cart Challenge.

“I figured why not get rewarded for it,” she said.

However, she quickly realized that she was not getting the proper amount of fruit in her daily diet.

“I’m learning that if I keep fruit out in a bowl, I eat a lot more than if they’re in the fridge,” she said.

She plans to continue on with the program when the next challenge begins.

“It just makes you more focused on your diet and conscious of what to eat,” she said.

There’s no catch when shopping for the Super Cart foods from the list, except that you have to buy the exact item — by brand and size — as it appears on the list. Carrots, for example, are a Super Cart food. But to earn a punch on the punch card, participants must purchase the 1 pound bag of Grimway baby carrots.

Pleimling said this is not a sales ploy, but rather a way to track the items for receipts and sales, and give management a hard number to measure the success of the program.

“Obviously, there are many super foods in the store, more than 55,” she said.

When participants get to the checkout lane, all of the items scanned in that are listed on the Super Cart Challenge grocery list will show up on the receipt under the “super food” category. The cashier will use that number from the receipt to punch the punch card.

Once the punch cards are full and redeemed for free items, Pleimling keeps the cards. Then at the end of the event, each full card will be placed into a drawing and the winner will receive a $50 Hy-Vee gift card.

During the program, participants also get new recipes mailed to them each week. Becker enjoys swapping recipes with her co-workers from the Family Y in Albert Lea, who have also joined the challenge. She said it gives them more variety in their meals and encouragement to try new things, too.

While this event is slated to run 55 days — chosen at random because there are 55 super foods on the Super Cart Challenge grocery list — Pleimling hopes this can be an ongoing event. She plans to vary the list with the seasons, featuring super foods that are in season. For example, frozen fruits on the current list will more than likely be replaced with fresh fruits once spring rolls around. She is also taking suggestions from participants.

“This is a trial. I’ve worked here four years and we’ve never done a customer challenge quite like this,” Pleimling said.

“The biggest benefit is good health,” she continued. “I want people to focus on that. These little rewards are just helpful to keep the awareness up and keep people motivated.”