Food Environment Quality and Stability (FEQS) Indicators

The Food Environment Quality and Stability (FEQS) Indicators are annual, tract-level measures from 1997 to 2020 for the food environment among SNAP-accepting retailers. Benjamin William Chrisinger created the dataset using the USDA's Historical SNAP Retailer Dataset and 2010 Census tract geographies. The research was supported by a USDA RIDGE Partnership grant.

Use Cases

• Analyze conventional food access based on the number of SNAP supermarkets or supercenters per tract.
• Measure retail variety based on the number of different types of SNAP retailers.
• Assess retail stability based on the proportion of SNAP retailers open one year prior that remain open.
• Track retail novelty based on the proportion of new SNAP retailers.
• Study neighborhood effects based on measures describing these indicators in neighboring tracts.

Strengths

• Provides a 24-year time series from 1997 to 2020.
• Measures are calculated at the tract level using 2010 Census geographies.
• Derived from the authoritative USDA Historical SNAP Retailer Dataset.
• Includes multiple dimensions: access, variety, stability, and novelty.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The associated academic publication is noted as 'under review'.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse, author Benjamin William Chrisinger.

Collection Method

Calculated using the USDA's Historical SNAP Retailer Dataset and 2010 Census tract geographies.

Time Range

1997-2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 17 23:21:53; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States (Census tracts)