R - Shopping For, Preparing, and Eating Food

D I ET A N D HE A LTH

V OLUME 7 • I SSUE 4

F i n di n g s

A MBER W A V ES

4

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Shopping For, Preparing, and Eating Food: Where Does the Time Go?
Eating requires both income to purchase food and time to prepare and consume it. Food spending tends to rise with a household’s
income. However, the opposite is true for time devoted to preparing
food. Individuals in lower income households, especially participants
in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly
known as the Food Stamp Program), spend more time preparing and
serving food at home than higher income households.
ERS researchers used data from the 2006 and 2007 American
Time Use Surveys (ATUS) and the ATUS Eating and Health Module to
compare the time patterns of individuals age 18 and older in households with incomes above and below 185 percent of the poverty line.
Lower income households were divided into SNAP participants and
nonparticipants. SNAP participants spent an average of 47 minutes
per person per day cooking, serving, and cleaning up after meals—57
percent more time than higher income individuals and 18 percent
more than lower income nonparticipants.
SNAP participants spent the most time cooking, serving,
and cleaning up after meals in 2006-07
Eating and drinking
(primary activity)

Food shopping

Food preparation

Average minutes per day
58
14

69
12

47

40

SNAP
participants

Lower income
nonparticipants

79
14
30
Higher
income

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service calculations from the
American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the ATUS Eating and Health
Module data, 2006-2007.

Earlier ERS analyses using only ATUS data found that, for women,
food preparation time fell as they spent more time working outside the
home. The same was true for SNAP households in 2006-07—employed
female participants spent, on average, 36 percent less time preparing
food than nonemployed SNAP participants. USDA program data show
that only about 30 percent of SNAP households report earned income,
suggesting that SNAP households, as a group, likely have more time to
devote to cooking. And they have a greater need—SNAP participants
cannot spend their benefits on restaurant or carryout meals. They
also have less money than higher income households to spend on
time-saving prepared foods.
SNAP participants, low-income nonparticipants, and higher
income individuals averaged about the same amount of time per
day—12 to 14 minutes per person—in the combined category of
grocery shopping, other food shopping, and related travel. (Shopping
times for the three groups are not statistically different.)
The time use data also revealed that SNAP participants and lowincome nonparticipants spent less time eating and drinking than
people in higher income households. SNAP participants averaged 58
minutes per person per day eating and drinking, compared with 69
minutes for lower income, nonparticipants and 79 minutes for the
higher income group. (The eating and drinking category of the survey
refers only to those occasions where food consumption was reported
as the “primary” or main activity, and includes related travel and
waiting times.)
Margaret Andrews, mandrews@ers.usda.gov
Karen Hamrick, khamrick@ers.usda.gov
This finding is drawn from . . .
2006 and 2007 Data Tables in the Eating and Health Module
(American Time Use Survey), www.ers.usda.gov/data/atus/

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