Efforts to encourage Americans to improve their diets and to eat more nutritious foods presume a wide variety of these foods are accessible to everyone. But for some Americans and in some communities, access to healthy foods may be limited. Policies to improve access to healthful foods have been...

Nontraditional stores, including mass merchandisers, supercenters, club warehouse stores, and dollar stores, have increased their food offerings over the past 15 years and often promote themselves as lower priced alternatives to traditional supermarkets. How much lower are food prices at these...

A small percentage of U.S. households live in “food deserts,†where access to a supermarket or large grocery store is a problem. Low-income households often leave food deserts to shop where food prices are lower. Business costs, along with characteristics of potential customers, affect...

Recent research has shown that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is effective in reducing food insecurity. Questions remain, however, about whether SNAP also has any effects on the quality of low-income households’ diets. These questions have surfaced in the context of the...