Dinner for a week for the Revis family in North Carolina cost about $342. From "Hungry Planet" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

By LEE SVITAK DEAN

How much food does your family eat in a week? A fascinating new exhibit at the Bell Museum shows how dinner varies throughout the world in quantity, substance and cost. "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" continues until May 9, 2010. Admission is free on Sundays.

The exhibit focuses on 10 cultures, many with ties to Minnesota, and is based on the book "Hungry Planet," by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. Their book won the James Beard Foundation's Book of the Year Award. in 2006. For an earlier interview with Peter and Faith, see this story.

The exhibit includes photos from the book, in large format, as well as displays of real food products. See here for more on the exhibit.

Each Thursday throughout the 26-week run, the museum will offer special programming on Thursdays. October 29 there is an open house for K-12 teachers. On other weeks, there will be discussion of etiquette and table manners throughout the world, a showing of "Black Gold," a movie on coffee production, and more. For a complete listing, see the museum's site at www.bellmuseum.org or call 612-626-9660.

The museum is at 10 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children 3 to 16 and for seniors. The museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free on Sundays.

A Chinese family sits with its food supply for a week, which in dollars would have cost $57. From "Hungry Planet" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

The Melander family in Germany spent the equivalent of $500 for their weekly amount of food. Theirs was the most expensive of the 24 countries represented in the book. Their food also had among the most packaging of those photographed. From "Hungry Planet" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.