27 Food Access Research Atlas

27.1 Organization

Economic Research Service (ERS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

The Food Access Research Atlas maps food access indicators for census tracts using ½- mile and 1-mile demarcations to the nearest supermarket for urban areas, 10-mile and 20-mile demarcations to the nearest supermarket for rural areas, and vehicle availability for all tracts.
Limited access to supermarkets, supercenters, grocery stores, or other sources of healthy and affordable food may make it harder for some Americans to eat a healthy diet.
Provides information on: food desert, low access, share of population beyond x miles from supermarket, without vehicle (overall, low income, by age, race).

2010, 2015, 2019

Census tract

The Atlas is based on 2010 census tract polygons.
The criteria for identifying a census tract as low income are from the Department of Treasury’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.
Spatial analysis, string matching, and manual review methods were used to merge the SNAP and TDLinx data sets to construct a combined store directory.
For vehicle access, tract-level 2010-2014 estimates of the share of housing units without vehicles is multiplied by the 2010 count of housing units to obtain an estimate of the number of households without vehicles. The share of individuals below 200 percent of poverty is multiplied by the 2010 population to obtain an estimate of the number of people with income at or below 200 percent of poverty. These numbers and shares are then allocated down to the ½-kilometer-square grid level. In previous updates, direct estimates of income and vehicle access were used instead of relying on 2010 population counts for estimation.

Free for download