|
Food
Stamp Participants’ Access to Food
Retailers
SUMMARY
For over 20
years the Food Stamp Program (FSP) has
been the cornerstone of the national
commitment to protect the nutrition,
health, and well being of America’s
low-income families. By design and law,
the program seeks to achieve its
nutritional goals by working through
“normal channels of trade”. It is
therefore critical to know whether food
stamp families are in fact able to
purchase a variety of quality food at a
reasonable price from food retailers
authorized to accept food stamps.
An earlier
analysis, examined issues related to
store access using Census data about the
demographics of the populations in areas
where authorized Food Stamp Program
stores are located. The National Food
Stamp Program Survey (NFSPS) obtained
complementary information by asking
respondents themselves about their food
shopping experiences, their
transportation to food stores, their
food shopping patterns, and their
perceptions of the adequacy of their
food shopping opportunities. The NFSPS
conducted in 1996 collected information
on customer service, access to
authorized food retailers, and food
security and nutrient availability from
the first nationally representative
sample of Food Stamp Program
participants and potential participants.
Findings
The findings
suggest that most low-income households,
including both FSP participants and
those not participating in the program,
have good access to food retailers. Most
households in the sample shop in their
neighborhoods and express high levels of
satisfaction with their shopping
opportunities. Further, for the average
household, the round trip to the
favorite store is only about 20 minutes.
For most households, this trip is done
by car. Other findings:
Food
Shopping Experiences
Transportation
to Food Shopping
-
Most
low-income households use the
automobile as their principal form
of transportation for food shopping,
but fewer than half are able to use
a car they own and have to rely on
friends, family, neighbors etc.
Food
Shopping Patterns
-
As
with other Americans, the great
majority of low-income households
shop at supermarkets. However,
considerable numbers of sample
members supplement food from
supermarkets with purchases at
several other types of stores,
including neighborhood grocery
stores, convenience stores,
bakeries, and produce stands.
-
Most
of the low-income households in the
sample reported that they frequently
used such “careful shopping”
techniques as stocking up on
bargains, watching for grocery
“specials,” comparing prices
across stores, and using shopping
lists. At least 60 percent of
respondents said that they did these
activities “on most shopping
trips” or at least “fairly
often.” Another 20 percent of
respondents reported that they never
did most of these activities.
Perceptions
of Shopping Opportunities
For households
who do not usually shop in their
neighborhoods, the most common reasons
for shopping elsewhere were high prices
in their neighborhood (48 percent) and
lack of stores (40 percent).
-
Among
respondents who shopped within their
neighborhoods, more than 85 percent
characterized themselves as either
very satisfied or somewhat satisfied
with the neighborhood shopping
opportunities. When asked about the
types of improvements they would
like to see in the shopping
situations of their neighborhoods,
respondents most commonly mentioned
the introduction of more
supermarkets, lower prices and
better selection of foods.
-
While
most households are basically
pleased with their shopping
opportunities, a minority do not
perceive themselves as having good
access to shopping. For instances,
even of the households that shop in
their neighborhoods, seven percent
indicated that they were very
dissatisfied with shopping
opportunities near where they lived.
Similar responses were given by
about a fifth of recipients who did
not shop in their neighborhoods.
These estimates are broadly
consistent with a separate finding
that, depending on the criterion,
approximately 10 to 20 percent of
respondents failed to rate the
stores where they shopped as at
least “good.”
July
1999
Last modified: 12/04/2008
|
|
