wild turkeys in Mahwah photo courtesy of Frank Pallotta
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, sorry New Jersey but if you are looking for the most value for the dollar and you are hosting Thanksgiving then the state of Kansas is your choice. There’s nowhere cheaper to buy a turkey and trimmings in 2022.
Researchers at Purdue University’s new Thanksgiving meal dashboard finds Kansas the most affordable state in the union to procure ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal this year. A 12-person spread costs $70.89, on average, in the Sunflower State.
Inflation has pushed the average cost of a 12-person Thanksgiving meal nationwide to $80.06, according to Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability.
Researchers estimated prices by visiting online supermarkets across the nation. The national average assumes a holiday meal will include a 16-pound turkey, at $33.31; five pounds of potatoes, at $9.93; two pounds of green beans, at $7.38; and a gallon of milk, at $4.54, among other expenses. The tab does not include bottles of wine or more extravagant sides.
The remote states of Hawaii and Alaska rank highest in average price for turkey and trimmings for 12, at $97.07 and $87.57, respectively. The balance of the top 10: South Dakota ($86.06), Nebraska ($85.43), California ($84.57), Oregon ($83.89), Colorado ($83.82), Nevada ($83.61), New York ($83.45) and Maryland ($83.33).
The most affordable states for Thanksgiving dinner are mostly Southern. A meal for 12 costs less than $75 on average in Kansas, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. Arkansas, Mississippi and Montana round out the bottom 10.
Organic ingredients can push the meal cost to a national average of $98.89. Vegetarian options lower it to $64, with tofu subbing for turkey.
The new dashboard provides an alternative to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has tabulated Thanksgiving costs for 37 years. Using slightly different methods and math, the Farm Bureau reported that a slightly downsized Thanksgiving meal for 10 will cost $64.05 this year, up from $53.31 in 2021. Turkey prices are running as much as 20 percent higher this year, said Jayson Lusk, a Purdue economist who maintains the Thanksgiving dashboard.
