Updated
Updated · Country 103.9 WRBI · Jun 24
Indiana Farm Bureau Finds $66.73 Cookout Cost for 10, Down 7% From 2025
Updated
Updated · Country 103.9 WRBI · Jun 24

Indiana Farm Bureau Finds $66.73 Cookout Cost for 10, Down 7% From 2025

3 articles · Updated · Country 103.9 WRBI · Jun 24

Summary

  • $66.73 is the average cost to feed 10 people at an Indiana summer cookout this year, or $6.67 per person, according to the Indiana Farm Bureau's annual survey.
  • Lower egg prices, after last year's avian-influenza spike, helped drive the decline, with potato salad prices falling 56% and cheaper pork chops and ground beef also cutting the total.
  • Indiana's per-person cost was about 10% below the U.S. average of $7.38, while the broader Midwest also came in slightly under the national figure.
  • Cookies, pork and beans, strawberries and chicken breast were the only surveyed items to rise from 2025, and proteins still made up about 54% of the basket cost.
  • The survey, conducted in early June by volunteer shoppers seeking the best regular grocery prices, contrasted with a 2.9% national increase in the food-at-home CPI.

Insights

While Indiana's cookout costs fall, why are the farmers who grow the food not seeing the benefits?
Why is Indiana enjoying a price drop for cookouts while the rest of the U.S. faces a 10-year high?
Do grocery price wars that lower cookout costs end up creating 'food deserts' in other neighborhoods?