August 5, 2009
For more information: Isabella Chism, 317-692-7803
Kathleen Dutro, 317-692-7824, kdutro@infarmbureau.org
Cookout food a bargain, according to new IFB survey
For the first time, Indiana Farm Bureau is supplementing its regular quarterly informal “market-basket” survey with a special survey geared toward those special foods that are particularly welcome at summer cookouts and picnics.
“Indiana is one of only a few state Farm Bureaus that are doing a cookout market basket,” said Isabella Chism, IFB 2nd vice president and chair of the Indiana Women’s Leadership Committee.
The new informal survey of cookout foods includes enough food to feed 10 people at an average summer picnic. Items include prepared potato salad, ground round, hot dogs, baked beans, condiments, American cheese, hamburger and hotdog buns, cola and potato chips. Twenty-five volunteer shoppers from around the state participated, and totals ranged as low as $24.98 and as high as $42.28. For its first year, the survey’s average total for these 11 items was $34.72.
The average prices for the individual items on the survey are: ground round (2 pounds), $5.98; hotdogs (1 pound), $2.80; 8-count bag of hamburger buns, $1.49; 8-count bag of hotdog buns, $1.44; 3-pound container of prepared potato salad, $5.61; 28-ounce can of baked beans, $1.94; 8-ounce jar of mustard, $1.42; 24-ounce bottle of ketchup, $1.62; 16-slice package of American cheese, $2.88; two 2-liter bottles of cola, $3.00; and two 11-ounce bags of potato chips, $6.55.
Since this is the first year Indiana Farm Bureau has done such a survey, there is of course no way to compare this year’s prices with last year’s. But similar surveys (though with slightly different shopping lists) taken by Arizona Farm Bureau and Virginia Farm Bureau Federation found that prices had decreased compared to last year – from $52.23 in 2008 to $50.38 for an Arizona family of 10, and from $38.04 to $35.49 for a Virginia family of 10. IFB’s regular quarterly market basket also showed a decrease from last year.
IFB was able to conduct a survey independent of other state Farm Bureaus, Chism added, because of the state’s large number of volunteers – one of the largest pools of market-basket volunteers in the country.
“We were able to try this because we’ve got so many willing shoppers,” she said. The IFB Women’s Leadership Committee, which is in charge of the market-basket survey program, is planning on conducting the cookout survey annually, she added.
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