More family meals prepared at home following the 2007-09 recession

Following the 2007-09 recession, the U.S. labor force declined from 154.3 million individuals in 2008 to 153.6 million in 2011. With less time dedicated to paid work, households could opt to spend more time preparing food and eating together as a family. Previous ERS research has shown that food prepared at home tends to be of higher nutritional quality than food prepared outside the home. Using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, ERS researchers found that in households of working-age adults and children younger than 17, the number of family meals (meals eaten with a majority of household members) increased from 5.8 per week in 2007-08 to 6.3 per week in 2009-10, and the number of those family meals prepared at home increased from 5.4 to 5.8 per week. Adults age 60 and older also ate more family meals and more family meals prepared at home. Among all working age adults in multiperson households (including those without children), the number of family meals prepared at home increased from 5.3 to 5.7 per week. The statistics in this chart are from “Less Eating Out, Improved Diets, and More Family Meals in the Wake of the Great Recession” in ERS’s March 2014 Amber Waves magazine.

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