Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) Analysis

For over a decade, Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) Analysis has guided strategic decision-making to increase access to fresh foods for residents living in places with inadequate and inequitable access to grocery stores. First developed for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund in 2010, the LSA analysis looks at such criteria as income, distance to existing stores, and car ownership rates to identify places where households have inadequate and inequitable access to supermarkets. The analysis quantifies disparate levels of food access in different types of communities – from dense urban environments to small rural towns.

Reinvestment Fund’s LSA analysis is accepted by the CDFI Fund as eligibility criteria for federally-funded healthy food lending and is available for all users on PolicyMap. Using this data, community stakeholders can identify underserved locations, estimate demand, and plan appropriate interventions.