The government has an inflation-busting meal idea:
“It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday on the NewsNation channel.
It isn’t a piece of cake.
Grocery prices have been on the rise and remain stubbornly high, ticking up 2.4% in December from a year earlier, according to government data. That is largely due to rising costs for some staples like beef and coffee. At the same time, the government just rolled out food guidelines that suggest eating a lot more protein while cutting processed foods.
“So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money,” Rollins said. She also said the government had run “over 1,000 simulations” of possible meal options based on retail prices that meet its dietary guidelines of meat, vegetables, grains and dairy.
A spokesman for the Agriculture Department said it found thousands of meal combinations that would meet its criteria at about $10 a day—roughly $3 a meal. That meal, in this instance, would include 3 ounces of chicken, a cup of vegetables, a tortilla and a dairy item.
Wall Street Journal reporters hit grocery stories in two cities, Boston and New Orleans, to look for a meal as Rollins described at that price. It was doable, but not necessarily very filling.
Even at a Roche Bros. supermarket in downtown Boston—next door to a luxury residential high rise—following the guidance yielded a plate that came in just about on budget, though getting all the ingredients cost nearly $26.
Parceling out 4 ounces from a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts—chicken loses weight when it is cooked—a cup of store-brand frozen broccoli and a flour tortilla (this store didn’t sell corn ones) came out to $2.61. Chicken weight loss varies by cooking method.
On the hunt for “one other thing,” an ounce of store-brand Vermont sharp white cheddar brings the whole meal in at $2.96. A serving of a Boston-centric alternative, canned clam chowder, would bump the meal up to $3.64.
“I’d need a couple pieces of chicken, a couple pieces of broccoli,” said Jay Cruz, a 22-year-old security guard who was shopping at the store for essentials. “A little more than that.”
The Boston meal with 6 ounces of cooked chicken and an extra ounce of cheese would be $4.89.
The government’s guidelines call for going well beyond 3 ounces of protein over the course of a day. A person eating 2,000 calories a day, for example, should consume three to four servings of cooked meat or seafood, according to the USDA. Other options include beans and lentils.
The government estimates don’t always fully consider variables—such as where you live and how much time you have to shop and prepare food—which make the best-case scenario less feasible for lower-income households, said David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University.
“It’s very abstract,” Ortega said. “It doesn’t necessarily translate very well into reality.”
The good news is that retail chicken prices have been relatively flat over the past year, thanks to increases in production. Shoppers looking for protein from red meat will pay much more. Retail beef prices in December were up about 16% from a year earlier. Beef prices have been rising for years.
Nationally, a pound of chicken breast cost $4.15 and cheddar cheese cost $5.79 a pound, both little changed from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.
Joseph Balagtas, an agricultural economist at Purdue University, said he agreed with Rollins that the new dietary guidelines still allowed for an affordable diet, even though the USDA is recommending more protein and relatively expensive foods such as steak, salmon and avocado. But there are also relatively inexpensive alternatives, he said.
Shoppers could also put together a small USDA-recommended meal for under $3 at a Rouses Market in New Orleans, part of a regional chain.
A package of 30 white corn tortillas came out to just under 10 cents each. Four uncooked ounces of frozen Tyson chicken breast adds about $1.10. Add in a cup of frozen broccoli and a glass of milk, and the total is around $2.39.
That left plenty of room for a 31-cent chocolate pudding cup. Getting all the groceries for the meal with milk, plus the pudding, cost $19.99.
Outside Rouses, an online grocery delivery driver, Jordan Corzette, said he spent the past year living a nomadic life, hitting grocery stores in at least 20 states while driving across the country in his van.
The idea of a $3 meal, with enough food and after years of price increases, is “an absolute farce,” he said.
Write to Jared Mitovich at [email protected], Rachel Wolfe at [email protected] and Patrick Thomas at [email protected]
