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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">These data were prepared by USDA REE-ERS to analyze various populations and their access to food at Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) authorized retailers. This data set measures access as straight-line distance from stores. The area outlines are from US Census Bureau TIGER data.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN> </SPAN></P><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">Limited access to supermarkets, supercenters, grocery stores, or other sources of healthy and affordable food may make it harder for some people to eat a healthy diet in this country. There are many ways to measure food store access for individuals and for neighborhoods, and many ways to define which areas are low-income and low access—neighborhoods that lack healthy food sources. Most measures and definitions consider at least some of the following indicators of access:</SPAN></P><UL><LI><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">Accessibility to sources of healthy food, as measured by distance to a store or by the number of stores in an area;</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">Individual-level resources that may affect accessibility, such as family income or vehicle availability; and</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">Neighborhood-level indicators of resources, such as the average income of the neighborhood and the availability of public transportation.</SPAN></P></LI></UL><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">In the Food Access Research Atlas, several indicators are available to measure food access along these dimensions. For example, users can choose alternative distance markers to measure low access in a neighborhood, such as the number and share of people more than one-half mile to a supermarket or 1 mile to a supermarket. Users can also view other census-tract-level characteristics that provide context on food access in neighborhoods, such as whether the tract has a high percentage of households far from supermarkets and without vehicles, individuals with low income, or people residing in group quarters.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV> |