Thanksgiving time is eating time! The USDA released their annual report about the foods that make up our Thanksgiving feast. I thought instead of doing portion control, let's take a look at what Thanksgiving actually costs and what is contributing to that. Here are some food facts about Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Fact 1: It is estimated that the average family will spend about $50.11 for their Thanksgiving feast. Just to put it into perspective, that is twice as much as was spent about 20 years ago. It is up 2% since last year. Of course, the majority of cost comes from the turkey. a 16 pound turkey costs about $23- that is about $1.44 per pound. Thanksgiving Fact 2: The typical Thanksgiving meal consists of turkey bread stuffing sweet potatoes rolls with butter peas cranberries a relish tray of carrots and celery pumpkin pie with whipped cream beverages of coffee and milk Thanksgiving Fact 3: Foods that went up the most in cost this year was for the most part came from the grains category (except pumpkin which is a vegetable): pumpkin pie mix bread stuffing pie shells brown-n-server rolls Thanksgiving Fact 4: The food items that actually went down in price this year were: gallon of whole milk coffee evaporated milk, onions eggs sugar flour Thanksgiving Fact 5: Our American farmers have done an outstanding job keeping food pricing reasonable with Thanksgiving costing an average of $5 per person if you eat a home cooked Thanksgiving meal. Monday’s Nourishing Thought: Say thank you to the local farmers around you every day making a difference!