Where Food is Purchased May Predict Food Security

WASHINGTON, DC – While most households in the United States hare ample supplies of food for all household members, some are food insecure. In a food-insecure household, not all members have enough food at all times. Researchers with the Economic Research Service (ERS) examined the food purchases of low-income food-insecure households and compared them to purchases of low-income food-secure households with similar characteristics. In particular, they examined differences in the types of places at which the two household groups spent their at-home food dollars using data from USDA’s National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS). The researchers found that food-insecure households made nearly 20 percent of their food-at-home purchases at convenience stores, while food-secure households spent 10 percent of their food-at-home dollars at convenience stores. Food-secure households spent a larger share of their food-at-home budgets at traditional grocery stores or supermarkets and at large warehouse club stores or supercenters. According to data from USDA, this can be a red flag warning of a food desert – known as an area without access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. These areas are also defined as “low-access communities” where at least 500 people of one-third of the population have no car and no supermarket within a mile. Rural communities expand the definition to no supermarket within ten miles.