Table 1.

Demographic characteristics and measures of food acquisition and shopping habits of 466 participants from disadvantaged communities in a study of food access, food shopping, and food security in South Carolina (2013–2014)

Characteristics	n=466
Age (year), mean (SD)	51.6 (14.5)
Female, %	80.3
African American, %	92.5
SNAPa participation, %	65.2
Food security, %
High food security	18.0
Marginal food security	20.2
Low food security	32.8
Very low food security	29.0
Education, %
Less than high school	30.0
High school	38.4
Some college and above	31.6
Annual household income, %
$0–9,999	46.6
$10,000–19,999	32.4
$20,000–29,999	11.8
$30,000 or more	9.2
Household size, mean (SD)	2.3 (1.4)
Nutrition knowledge about fruit & vegetable servings per day	3.6 (2.0)
At least 5 servings per day, %	23.8
Perception of lack of access to adequate food shopping in neighborhood, %
A very serious problem	29.4
A somewhat serious problem	21.0
A minor problem	17.6
Not a problem	32.0
Store 1
Distance in miles, mean (SD)	2.7 (2.4)
Frequency (per week), mean (SD)	1.2 (1.2)
Supermarket/Supercenter, %	88.6
Transportation to store 1, %
Drive own vehicle	44.7
Ride in a friend’s/family member’s vehicle	35.8
Take a bus or taxi	9.3
Walk or bicycle	10.1
Store 2
Distance in miles, mean (SD)	2.8 (1.7)
Shopping frequency (per week), mean (SD)	0.6 (0.6)
Supermarket/Supercenter, %	85.4
Store 3
Distance in miles, mean (SD)	4.0 (12.0)
Frequency (per week), mean (SD)	0.3 (0.3)
Supermarket/Supercenter, %	81.1
Farmers’ market utilization and community food resourcesb
Shop at farmers’ market, %	45.1
Acquire food at bank or pantry, %	52.2
Acquire food from church or social services, %	53.2

^aSNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program;

^bCommunity food resources in this paper refer to food banks/food pantries and food acquired from churches/social services. The distribution of these and other types of community resources and their association with food security level have been reported previously⁴⁶.