The USDA[1] shows Americans spending 11.3% of disposable income on food.

To quote them:

>U.S. consumers spent an average of 11.3 percent of their disposable personal income on food in 2022

[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistic...

The median income is a lot lower than the average income.

Not even sure how food falls under disposable income. Sounds like a cute way of saying "after-tax income" as if "things to buy otherwise you die" is a luxury"?

From the chart after the one you quoted:

"In 2021, households in the lowest income quintile spent an average of $4,875 on food (representing 30.6 percent of income), while households in the highest income quintile spent an average of $13,973 on food (representing 7.6 percent of income)."

Pretty cool/sad to see the top 20% spending almost 3x/household on food.

Without knowing number of people per household, you cannot draw any conclusions on the top 20% spending 3x the bottom 20%.

The top 20% might have a disproportionate amount of family of 4+ with kids in their teenage years and parents in their highest earning years.

The bottom 20% might disproportionately be senior citizens collecting Social Security with no kids.

Also, top 20% are living in more expensive regions than bottom 20%. Lots of conflating factors to tease out that would result in 3x not being the correct multiple.

> a moderate cost of food prepared at home for a family of four (with, say, a 16 year old daughter and 14 year old son) is $1,378.90/mo

I’m not sure how they calculate that (and the page they link to with information is down), but that really doesn’t make sense. For my five person household - five adults - we spend about $800-1000/month on groceries. According to that document, we’d be spending about $1400 on their low-cost plan or $1750 on their moderate-cost plan. But we’re not low-cost: that’s our costs shopping at a fairly upscale grocery store (not Whole Foods, but above average on price) and buying pretty fancy food. Maybe the costs assume no bulk purchases split between multiple members of the household?

That means you're spending $2-3 per meal per person assuming 2-3 meals a day eaten at home. This is effectively impossible in many places (in urban California I'd say it is actually impossible). I find it hard to believe you're incorporating anything but a lot of beans/rice and potatoes, or your portions are very small.

Another potential explanation is that they may be shifting some of the grocery budget without accounting for it in their comment: buying cafeteria meals, eating from restaurants, dining at friends' and families' houses, etc.

> 1000/month on groceries

yes, we as well mostly cook at home, but if you add some occasional restaurant meals, plus fast food on the road, plus things like $ for NG to cook, and $ for electricity for fridge and freezer, $1200-1300/month looks about right

A lot of America is on food stamps (42 million, 22 million households), and have been since 2008 (Great Recession). Poverty hit, and it never went away.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/19/what-the-...

Most are white native, not some ethnic issue. Spread over much of the age spectrum. Most are just stuck in constant unemployment (61.6% "Not employed in any month")

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/19/what-the-...