Americans who plan to serve their family and friends a traditional Thanksgiving feast on Thursday will once again need to dig deep into their hurting pocketbooks to pay for it, new data from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) suggests.
To feed a family of 10 a Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, buttered rolls, cranberries, veggies, and pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream, this year, the average American will shell out $61.17.
AFBF, which highlights holiday food prices annually, noted the cost of the 2023 feast is “Down Slightly from Record High in 2022” but warned this year’s Turkey Day meal “still reflects historically high costs.”
The 2023 feast total may be a 4.5 percent decrease from the record-high average of $64.05 set last year, but Americans are still paying 25 percent more for Thanksgiving staples than they did in 2019.
AFBF attributes the historically high prices to the “high supply costs and inflation have had on food prices since before the pandemic.” A majority of Americans agree with this analysis.
Despite corporate media and the White House’s spin claiming inflation is “cooling,” 69 percent of U.S. adults say they experienced an increase in household expenses over the last year. An even stronger majority, 73 percent, deemed the national economy “poor.”
Prices for essential items such as gas, food, and shelter have steadily increased over the course of President Joe Biden’s presidency, as he continued to bloat the post-lockdown American economy with trillions in federal dollars and signed off on the export of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
In October alone, American shoppers paid 3.2 percent more for goods than they did in 2022 and 11.1 percent more than they did in 2021.
In addition to paying more for food, Americans who hit the road over the holiday week will be paying for gas which costs an average of $3.30 a gallon but is expected to rise as conflict in the Middle East intensifies.
Consumers aren’t the only ones suffering historically high costs this holiday season.
“While shoppers will see a slight improvement in the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner, high inflation continues to hammer families across the country, including the nation’s farmers,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. “Growing the food families rely on is a constant challenge for farmers because of high fuel, seed, fertilizer and transportation costs, just to name a few.”
