{"id":17990,"date":"2021-09-14T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=17990"},"modified":"2021-08-31T10:57:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T14:57:26","slug":"updates-to-usdas-thrifty-food-plan-better-reflect-the-cost-of-a-healthy-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/14\/updates-to-usdas-thrifty-food-plan-better-reflect-the-cost-of-a-healthy-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates to USDA\u2019s Thrifty Food Plan Better Reflect the Cost of a Healthy Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 45 years, the USDA\u2019s Thrifty Food Plan has been\nthe basis for calculating the amount of SNAP benefits that households receive. The\nSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program that\nprovides nutrition benefits to low-income individuals and families. These\nbenefits are used at stores to purchase food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Thrifty Food Plan provides an indication of the U.S.\ngovernment’s expectation of food costs for a household. The plan represents the\ncost to purchase groceries for a family of four \u2013 an adult male and female,\nages 20-50, and two children, ages 6-8 and 9-11. According to the USDA, this\nplan is supposed to reflect the cost of a \u201cmeet the nutritional needs of an\naverage person consuming a healthy, cost-conscious diet at home.\u201d Although the\nThrifty Food Plan cost is adjusted monthly for inflation, there has been no\nchange in the foods used in the plan for the past 15 years. During that time,\nthere have been changes in nutrition recommendations and in people\u2019s food\nhabits. As a result, it was exceedingly difficult to buy an adequate amount of\nhealthy foods using the cost calculations from the old Thrifty Food Plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USDA recently updated the foods and food groups included\nin the plan. The updates to the plan are based on the cost of food, nutrients\nin food, nutrition guidance, and what Americans eat. Cultural factors and\nconvenience were also considered. For example, the old plan\u2019s costs for legumes\nwere calculated using dried beans. The revised plan uses canned beans,\nacknowledging that many households will not spend hours cooking dried beans.\nThis change does not mean that households should not use dried beans, rather,\nit calculates food costs using canned beans. Other vegan convenience foods that\nwere used to calculate the cost of a thrifty meal plan were baby carrots,\npackaged salad greens, and salsa. The \u201cdairy\u201d group costs included the cost of unsweetened\nsoy milk. The new plan estimates that 24% of a household\u2019s food budget will be\nspent on vegetables, 16% on grains, 14% on fruit, 14% on dairy, 25% on \u201cprotein\nfoods,\u201d and the remainder on miscellaneous food items. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a family of four receiving the maximum SNAP benefit, the\nnew plan would result in an additional $34 per week for a total of $193 per\nweek. The amount of SNAP funds that households receive varies based on household\ncomposition and income. The hope is that this additional money will help\nfamilies receiving SNAP benefits purchase healthier foods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about the Thrifty Food plan see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/TFP2021.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.usda.gov\/media\/blog\/2021\/08\/12\/thrifty-food-plan-what-it-and-why-it-matters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For low-cost vegan menus based on USDA\u2019s SNAP budget see: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/journal\/vj2020issue2\/2020_issue2_vegan_menus.php<\/a> (These are based on the cost for the old Thrifty Food Plan. Nonetheless they provide specific ideas for eating a nutritious vegan diet on a limited budget).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD For the past 45 years, the USDA\u2019s Thrifty Food Plan has been the basis for calculating the amount of SNAP benefits that households receive. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program that provides nutrition benefits to low-income individuals and families. These benefits are used at stores to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17992,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17990\/revisions\/17992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}