Rising costs for food, gasoline and home heating means many Michigan families have less on the Thanksgiving table this year.
The Michigan Farm Bureau’s annual Thanksgiving survey found the average cost of the classic Thanksgiving feast for 10, which is $64.05 or less than $6.50 per person. That's a $10.74 or 20% increase from last year’s average of $53.31.
Kara Ross is the president of the Eastern Michigan Food Bank.
She says inflation is also affecting the food bank’s ability to deliver.
“Even our transportation and fuel costs, of course, have been affected and going up in what we’re able to....how we’re able to manage that...both the food coming in to the state of Michigan for us to distribute and then us driving the food out to every county within our 22-county service area,” said Ross.
Ross says food pantries had been seeing demand easing after the COVID-19 pandemic. But then they saw an increase as inflation took hold earlier this year.
