Middle- and upper-class city dwellers tend to live near supermarkets. But if the trek feels too far, in many cities and suburbs they can order grocery deliveries, often for a single-digit delivery fee, from services such as Instacart, Peapod and FreshDirect.
That’s not an option for the 14 percent of Americans who rely on food stamps. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's benefits cannot be used online. That only worsens food access for poor Americans who live far from grocery stores.
And many of them do. The Agriculture Department estimates that 11.5 million poor Americans live more than one mile from a supermarket, commonly called a "food desert." That represents 4.1 percent of the U.S. population. And 2.3 million households, or 2.2 percent overall, do not have access to a vehicle and live more than a mile from a supermarket.
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