The Food Stamp Program augments food resources of

low-income households, with the goal of ensuring that

they can afford healthy, nutritious diets. The maximum

benefit for each household size is based on the cost, at

national average prices, of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)—

a set of meal plans that provides a nutritious diet at a

minimal cost. The food stamp benefit formula does not

account for geographic differences in food prices (except

in Alaska and Hawaii, where food prices and benefits are

higher). In other areas, if food prices are substantially

higher than the national average, food stamp benefits

may be insufficient to provide a healthy, varied diet consistent with a normal range of food preferences. 

This report examines the extent of geographic variability

in food costs, using nationally representative data on the

amount that households report they would need to spend

to just meet their food needs. Differences across metropolitan areas and State-level nonmetropolitan areas in the

reported cost of “enough food” are examined, giving special attention to the proportion of Food Stamp Program

participants living in areas where the cost of enough food

is substantially higher than the national average.

What Is the Cost of “Enough Food”?

The cost of “enough food” in an area is the average

amount that low- and medium-income households in that

area report needing to spend to just meet their food

needs, adjusted for household size and income (see box).

The cost of enough food in an area depends both on local

food prices and on social perceptions of what an adequate diet comprises. Nord and Leibtag compared the

cost-of-enough-food measure with food price indices

across 171 cities for which comparable food price data

were available. The associations they observed between

the cost-of-enough-food measure and food price indices

suggested that differences in the cost-of-enough-food

measure used in this study reflect primarily, but not

exclusively, differences in food prices.

Food Stamp Program Maximum 

Benefit Level Slightly Lower Than 

Average Cost of Enough Food

The amount that households usually spend for food

increases steadily as incomes rise from low levels to

seven times the poverty line (fig. 1). The minimum

amount households report that they would need to spend

to just meet their food needs is more weakly related to

income and is nearly constant at around 30-33 percent of

the poverty line for households with annual incomes up

to twice the poverty line—a range that includes almost

all food stamp recipients. The maximum Food Stamp

Program allotment is, on average, about 28 percent of the

poverty line, and about 10 percent less than the national

average cost of enough food reported by low-income

households.

Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective

Higher Cost of Food in Some Areas

May Affect Food Stamp

Households’ Ability To Make

Healthy Food Choices

Mark Nord, Heather Hopwood

United States

Department of

Agriculture

Economic 

Research

Service

Economic Information Bulletin Number 29-3 September 2007

Comstock
Cost of Enough Food Is Substantially 

Higher in Some Areas

About 17 percent of households that received food stamps

during 2000-02 (excluding those in Alaska and Hawaii)

were in locales where the cost of enough food exceeded the

national average by 10 percent or more (fig. 2). For this

analysis, a household’s locale was defined as the entire

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in which it was located, or, in the case of households in nonmetropolitan areas,

the entire nonmetropolitan area of the State. The cost of

enough food was 10 percent above the national average or

higher in 25 MSAs and in the nonmetropolitan area of

Florida (table 1). In the highest cost MSAs—New York

City, Newark, Fort Lauderdale, and San Francisco—the

cost of enough food ranged from 18 to 28 percent above the

national average.

Nationally, the cost of enough food was 11 percent lower in

nonmetropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. It is likely, however, that food costs are substantially higher in some

rural areas—especially areas that are remote from urban

centers, have low population density, and are poorly served

by the transportation infrastructure. The data used in this

study do not reflect these differences within nonmetropolitan areas below the State level.

2 Economic Research Service/USDA

The cost of “enough food” is calculated from the amount that

households report they would need to spend to just meet their

food needs. Households interviewed in the Current Population

Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) are first asked

several questions to establish how much they usually spend for

food each week. They are then asked, “In order to buy just

enough food to meet the needs of your household, would you

need to spend more than you do now or could you spend less?”

If they say “more,” they are then asked how much more. If they

say “less,” they are asked how much less.

The minimum weekly food spending needed for each household

is annualized and divided by the household’s annual poverty

threshold to adjust for household size and composition. The cost

of enough food for each metropolitan area and for each State’s

nonmetropolitan area is calculated as the average cost of enough

food reported by households with incomes of less than five times

the poverty line living in that area. An adjustment is made for

each household’s income since households with higher income

generally report slightly higher minimum food spending needed.

The CPS-FSS is a nationally representative survey conducted by

the Census Bureau for USDA. The statistics reported here are

based on responses of 109,216 households with incomes below

five times the poverty line interviewed in four surveys between

September 2000 and December 2002.

Usual food spending

Minimum food spending needed

Food Stamp Program maximun benefit

0.

0.0

1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Food spending (ratio to poverty line)

Average reported usual food spending and minimum 

food spending needed by income level compared 

with average maximum food stamp benefit

Figure 1

Income (ratio to poverty line)

012 34 567

Source: Economic Research Service/USDA, using Current Population 

Survey Food Security Supplement data, 2000-02. 

Note: Households in Alaska and Hawaii, where maximum food stamp 

benefits are higher than in other States, were omitted.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Figure 2

Distribution of food-stamp-eligible households by 

cost of “enough food” in their locale1

Percent of households

Less than 

90 percent

90-95 

percent

95-105 

percent

105-110 

percent

More than 

110 percent

Cost of “enough food” compared with national average

1

The cost of “enough food” was averaged with each metropolitan 

statistical area and within the nonmetropolitan area of each State. 

Households in Alaska and Hawaii are not included. 

Source: Economic Research Service/USDA, using Current Population 

Survey Food Security Supplement data, 2000-02. 

How Is the Cost of “Enough Food” Calculated?
The cost of enough food was at or above the national average in all of the nine most populous MSAs—those with

populations exceeding 4 million (table 2). However, in all

but two, the cost of enough food was within 5 percent of

the national average.

In large metropolitan areas, the cost of enough food was

generally higher in the incorporated areas of the main cities

than in the surrounding suburban and exurban areas (table

3). Those differences were substantial in New York City

and Los Angeles.

Setting the Food Stamp Program Benefit Level

Balances Benefit Adequacy and Targeting

Both benefit adequacy and targeting efficiency could be

improved if benefits could be adjusted for differences in

local food costs. To be practically feasible, however, such

an adjustment would need to be based on food cost data

that are widely perceived to be highly accurate and reliable.

The cost-of-enough-food statistics described in this report,

based on subjective self-reports, are not likely to meet that

standard, and official area-specific price data with national

coverage and adequate geographic specificity are not currently available. The primary policy options available to

respond to interarea differences in food costs, then, are

national-level adjustments to the maximum benefit level

and income-eligibility criteria—adjustments that balance

benefit adequacy against targeting efficiency.

Food stamp benefits based on just meeting food needs at

national average prices are likely to be insufficient to provide a satisfactory diet in areas with higher food costs and

to provide more than is needed (thus, reducing benefit-targeting efficiency) in areas with lower food costs. If food

prices did not differ greatly from area to area, neither problem would be very large. Evidence from this study, however, indicates that food costs differ considerably across the

country. About 17 percent of food stamp participants live in

areas where the cost of enough food is 10 percent above the

national average or higher. It is likely that many participants

Economic Research Service/USDA 3

Table 3

Cost of “enough food” in central cities and surrounding

areas of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago1

Metropolitan Statistical Area Cost of “enough food”

Percent of national average

New York, NY

Central city 120

Surrounding suburban and exurban area 109

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA

Central city 116

Surrounding suburban and exurban area 108

Chicago, IL

Central city 106

Surrounding suburban and exurban area 104

1“Central city” generally includes the entire incorporated area of the

main cities in the metropolitan statistical area. “Surrounding suburban

and exurban area” includes adjacent densely populated counties that

are closely linked to the central city by commuting.

Source: Economic Research Service/USDA, using Current Population

Survey Food Security Supplement data, 2000-02.

Table 1

Locales with cost of “enough food” 10 percent above

the national average or higher 1

Area Cost of “enough food”

Percent of 

national average

San Francisco, CA 128

Fort Lauderdale, FL 122

Newark, NJ 119

New York, NY 118

Stamford-Norwalk, CT 117

San Jose, CA 113

West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL 113

Myrtle Beach, SC 113

Baton Rouge, LA 113

Boulder-Longmont, CO 113

Springfield, MA 112

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA 112

Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 112

Orange County, CA 111

Miami, FL 111

Fort Myers-Cape Coral, CA 111

Florida nonmetropolitan areas 110

1The cost of “enough food” in the following metropolitan statistical areas

was also estimated to be higher than 110 percent of the national average, but specific estimates are not reported because they were based

on reports of fewer than 100 households: Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie, FL;

Houma, LA; Jackson, MI; Lawrence, MA-NH; Montgomery, AL; San Luis

Obispo-Atascaderos-Paso Robles, CA; Santa Barbara-Santa MariaLompoc, CA; Santa Rosa, CA; Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, CA.

Source: Economic Research Service/USDA, using Current Population

Survey Food Security Supplement data, 2000-02.

Table 2 

Cost of “enough food” in metropolitan areas with

populations greater than 4 million

Metropolitan Statistical Area Cost of “enough food”

Percent of national average

New York, NY 118

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA 111

Philadelphia, PA-NJ 105

Washington, DC-MD-VA 105

Chicago, IL 105

Houston, TX 103

Atlanta, GA 103

Dallas, TX 102

Detroit, MI 100

Source: Economic Research Service/USDA, using Current Population

Survey Food Security Supplement data, 2000-02.
in those areas have inadequate food resources to support

healthy food choices. Households that receive less than the

maximum food stamp benefit would be similarly affected

by high food costs. They are expected to meet part of their

food needs out of food stamps and the remainder out of 30

percent of their own income (after certain exemptions).

Those combined resources total to the maximum food

stamp benefit and would, in many cases, be insufficient to

support healthy food choices in areas with high food costs.

An even larger proportion of participants is subject to that

level of benefit inadequacy if the reported cost of enough

food by low-income households does, in fact, represent the

minimum cost of a healthy diet that is consistent with normal food preferences. The national average cost of enough

food is about 10 percent higher than the maximum food

stamp benefit.

On the other hand, 14 percent of participants live in areas

where the cost of enough food is 10 percent below the

national average or lower and another 22 percent live in

areas where the cost of enough food is 5-10 percent below

the national average. If the maximum food stamp benefit

were increased, benefit targeting efficiency would decline

as many of those households would receive even larger benefits beyond those required to meet their food and nutrition

needs.

Setting national-level benefits will continue to require balancing benefit adequacy against targeting efficiency. Costof-enough-food statistics provide perspective on the extent

to which food stamp recipients’ healthy food choices may

be affected by these decisions. Information on the cost of

enough food may also help State and local governments

assess the need for supplementary food assistance and other

forms of support for low-income households. 

Information Sources

Nord, M., and E. Leibtag. “Is the ‘Cost of Enough Food’ Lower

in Rural Areas?” The Review of Regional Studies 35(3):291-310,

Winter 2005.

4 Economic Research Service/USDA

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