The person who eats last can become a household’s unrecorded measure of shortage.

Whoever eats last absorbs the shortfall without it being recorded anywhere. The household appears to have had enough, and one person quietly took less so the appearance held. Their sacrifice becomes the buffer, and buffers are noticed only when they fail.

Look at who occupies that position where you are. It is often the same person every time, and often nobody has ever said so. The remedy is not gratitude but rotation: change who serves last, or serve everyone at once. And if it is you, saying it aloud once is not ingratitude, however long the pattern has been in place.