How much food to buy for a week: pounds by food group
Add each person in your household by age and sex, and this calculator shows how much food to buy for a week, in pounds, for every food group USDA uses: vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, protein foods and the rest. The amounts come from USDA's Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 market baskets. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
For USDA's reference family of four (a man and a woman aged 20 to 50, a child aged 6 to 8 and a child aged 9 to 11), the basket is 140.94 lb of food a week, as purchased. That is about 35 lb a person. An adult man's basket is 44.74 lb and an adult woman's is 33.74 lb.
Pounds a week for each age and sex, Thrifty Food Plan 2021
| Person | Total | Vegetables | Fruits | Grains | Dairy | Protein foods | Miscellaneous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child, 1 | 18.29 | 4.03 | 3.51 | 1.22 | 7.57 | 1.34 | 0.63 |
| Child, 2 to 3 | 24.64 | 4.89 | 5.09 | 2.12 | 9.42 | 2.51 | 0.62 |
| Child, 4 to 5 | 26.85 | 5.72 | 4.84 | 2.80 | 9.63 | 3.23 | 0.62 |
| Child, 6 to 8 | 27.94 | 7.06 | 4.82 | 2.75 | 8.91 | 3.17 | 1.22 |
| Child, 9 to 11 | 34.52 | 8.23 | 6.70 | 3.36 | 11.15 | 3.88 | 1.20 |
| Male, 12 to 13 | 35.46 | 8.16 | 6.47 | 3.74 | 10.85 | 4.18 | 2.06 |
| Female, 12 to 13 | 31.29 | 6.41 | 6.27 | 2.74 | 10.88 | 3.53 | 1.45 |
| Male, 14 to 19 | 45.83 | 11.70 | 8.75 | 4.85 | 13.72 | 5.22 | 1.59 |
| Female, 14 to 19 | 35.47 | 8.46 | 7.03 | 3.19 | 11.40 | 3.87 | 1.52 |
| Male, 20 to 50 | 44.74 | 11.73 | 8.75 | 4.88 | 11.12 | 4.94 | 3.32 |
| Female, 20 to 50 | 33.74 | 8.35 | 6.64 | 3.14 | 10.13 | 4.19 | 1.31 |
| Male, 51 to 70 | 40.24 | 10.65 | 7.10 | 4.38 | 11.76 | 4.90 | 1.45 |
| Female, 51 to 70 | 32.66 | 7.00 | 6.36 | 2.38 | 11.02 | 4.04 | 1.87 |
| Male, 71 and older | 38.37 | 9.13 | 6.74 | 3.59 | 12.36 | 5.60 | 0.96 |
| Female, 71 and older | 34.21 | 9.56 | 4.61 | 2.45 | 11.43 | 3.67 | 2.48 |
From Tables A4.1 to A4.15 of the report, as purchased, one person, one week. Children under 12 have one table whatever their sex.
What the market basket is
The Thrifty Food Plan market basket is a cost model, not a menu. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service built it to price a healthy diet on a limited budget, and that price is the basis for the maximum SNAP benefit. An optimization model chose, for each of 15 age and sex groups, a mix of food categories that meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, within that budget and as close as possible to what Americans already eat, at June 2021 prices. The report calls the result "a low-cost, practical food budget"; USDA dropped the old "minimal cost" label in this edition. The result is a weekly amount of each category, in pounds, for each group.
USDA is plain about what that does not make it. The report says the plan "is not intended to be an item-specific shopping list or a prescriptive diet, but rather a framework to support a healthy diet on a limited budget." Read the numbers as a well-documented benchmark for the size of a week's shop, not as a rule about what your household should eat.
How the calculator works
The calculator adds up USDA's tables, one person at a time.
- Each person is matched to one of the report's 15 tables by age and sex. Children under 12 share a table whatever their sex; from 12 on, boys and girls have separate tables.
- The weekly pounds for each category are added across the household. Categories where USDA prints "<0.01" (coffee and tea for children, for example) are shown as "under" that bound rather than as zero.
- For two, three or four weeks, every amount is multiplied by the number of weeks.
- When the household is exactly USDA's reference family, the calculator shows the figures the report prints in its Table 1. They match the sum of the four people's tables to within 0.01 lb in every row.
There is no adjustment for household size. USDA adjusts the plan's cost for smaller and larger households, but it prints the baskets per person and gives no size rule for quantities, so the calculator applies none.
Why the pounds look high
The amounts are as purchased, which is heavier than what ends up on a plate. USDA converted what people eat into what a shopper carries home, adding back peels, stems, bones and cooking losses. Two details push the weight up further:
- Beans are counted as canned. The report's footnote says "nearly all selections within this subcategory are assumed to be canned beans", so the liquid in the can is part of the 6.06 lb of beans, peas and lentils in the reference family's week.
- Dairy is mostly fluid milk. Milk is heavy, which is why dairy (41.30 lb) is the largest category by weight for the reference family even though protein foods cost the most.
The report also gives a conversion for the milk rows: pounds times 15.34 is roughly fluid ounces. The calculator uses it to show gallons. For the reference family, the two milk rows come to 40.61 lb, or about 4.9 gallons a week if it is all fluid milk.
Weekly pounds per person, by age and sex
USDA's 15 tables, totalled. Each figure is one person's week, as purchased, from Tables A4.1 to A4.15 of the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 report.
| Person | Pounds a week |
|---|---|
| Child, 1 | 18.29 |
| Child, 2 to 3 | 24.64 |
| Child, 4 to 5 | 26.85 |
| Child, 6 to 8 | 27.94 |
| Child, 9 to 11 | 34.52 |
| Male, 12 to 13 | 35.46 |
| Female, 12 to 13 | 31.29 |
| Male, 14 to 19 | 45.83 |
| Female, 14 to 19 | 35.47 |
| Male, 20 to 50 | 44.74 |
| Female, 20 to 50 | 33.74 |
| Male, 51 to 70 | 40.24 |
| Female, 51 to 70 | 32.66 |
| Male, 71 and older | 38.37 |
| Female, 71 and older | 34.21 |
Teenage boys have the heaviest basket, at 45.83 lb. The figures are a model's output, so they carry its quirks: the basket for a woman aged 20 to 50 has almost no whole or 2% milk (0.08 lb) and 9.55 lb of skim or 1% milk instead.
How this compares with other rules of thumb
Most pages that answer "how many pounds of food per person per week" quote the food-bank figure of 1.2 lb per meal, which a HACAP guide attributes to Feeding America and multiplies out to 25.2 lb a person a week. That number is a food-bank distribution standard, one figure for everyone. USDA's baskets are heavier for most people (an adult's runs from 32.66 to 44.74 lb) because they are built from a full diet, bought in purchasable forms, and they differ by age and sex. A toddler's week is 18.29 lb; a teenage boy's is 45.83 lb.
From pounds to a shopping list
Pounds by food group tell you the size of the shop, not the items. To turn them into a list:
- Start with what you already have. Planning meals from your pantry cuts the amounts before you buy anything.
- Plan the week's shop around the categories that are short. How to plan grocery shopping for a week walks through the order.
- For a single meal, the portion planner gives the amount per person that US labelling rules set for rice, pasta, meat and other foods.
- Put a price on it. At July 2026 prices USDA costs this same reference family at $236.50 a week on the Thrifty plan; the grocery budget calculator works out any household on all four USDA plans, and how much to spend on groceries sets those figures against what households actually spend.
The calculator says how much food a basket holds. Duneed keeps track of what you actually bought: photograph a grocery receipt and its lines land in your pantry with a category and the price you paid, so you can see which food groups the money goes to.
Sources and method
- USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 (FNS-916, August 2021): Table 1 for the reference family and Tables A4.1 to A4.15 for each age and sex group, weekly market baskets at June 2021 prices. The descriptions of each category (pages 40 to 42 of the report) supply the examples the calculator quotes, such as tilapia or canned tuna for seafood.
- Every figure was extracted from the PDF by a script, not typed, and the calculator's tests check that the four reference-family tables add up to Table 1.
- The report prints a few cells with three decimals instead of two (Table A4.11 gives fruits for a woman aged 20 to 50 as 6.636 lb). The calculator keeps them as printed.
Common questions
How many pounds of food does a person eat in a week?
USDA's Thrifty Food Plan basket for an adult aged 20 to 50 is 44.74 lb a week for a man and 33.74 lb for a woman, as purchased. What is eaten weighs less, because the purchased weight includes peels, bones, canning liquid and cooking losses.
How much food does a family of 4 need for a week?
USDA's reference family of four (two adults aged 20 to 50 and two children aged 6 to 11) has a Thrifty Food Plan basket of 140.94 lb a week. That breaks down as 35.37 lb of vegetables, 26.91 lb of fruit, 14.13 lb of grains, 41.30 lb of dairy, 16.18 lb of protein foods and 7.05 lb of other foods.
How many gallons of milk does a family of 4 need in a week?
About 4.9 gallons, if all of the milk, yogurt and soy alternatives in USDA's reference family basket (40.61 lb) is bought as fluid milk. The conversion is the report's own: pounds times 15.34 gives fluid ounces.
How much meat per person per week?
A man aged 20 to 50 has 0.76 lb of meat, 1.87 lb of poultry and 0.85 lb of seafood in his weekly Thrifty Food Plan basket; a woman in the same age group has 0.43 lb, 1.87 lb and 0.73 lb. Eggs, beans, nuts and soy supply the rest of the protein.
How many pounds of vegetables per person per week?
11.73 lb for a man aged 20 to 50 and 8.35 lb for a woman, in the Thrifty Food Plan baskets. Potatoes and other starchy vegetables are the largest share, and beans are counted as canned.
Is this a diet recommendation?
No. The market basket is USDA's cost model for a healthy diet on a limited budget, and the report says it is not a shopping list or a prescriptive diet. What anyone should eat is not something this calculator answers.
Is anything I type saved?
Only in your own browser. The calculator runs in the page, remembers your household on this device, and sends nothing to Duneed or anyone else.