As directed by Congress in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (PL 115–334, the 2018 Farm Bill), and for the first time since 2006, USDA reevaluated the Thrifty Food Plan to reflect updated data on food prices, food composition, and consumption patterns, and current dietary guidance in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.
Effective Oct. 1, 2021, the market basket costs indicated in the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 report (below) serve as the basis for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit allotments. We update these costs each month to reflect inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The cost of the Thrifty Food Plan each June serves as the basis for SNAP benefit allotments for the following federal fiscal year beginning each Oct. 1.
The Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 report provides transparency on the reevaluation process, making information available to researchers who may want to reproduce the analysis. Further, the Supplement to Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 (.xlsx) provides the input data compiled exclusively for the development for the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021. These data include modeling and market basket categories and food price data that were included in the report. The General Algebraic Modeling Language (GAMS) code and associated input files are available in Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 Optimization Model (.zip), while the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 Disaggregated Market Basket (.xlsx) provides the quantities and associated costs of foods and beverages included in the Thrifty Food Plan market baskets for each age-sex group to support reproducibility of the analyses.