Reinvestment Fund Awards $22.6 Million to Improve Healthy Food Access in Underserved Communities | News

Grant awards to 134 projects to boost obtain to healthier food items in their communities.

PHILADELPHIA, June 10, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Reinvestment Fund today declared $22.6 million in economic aid awards to 134 jobs via the 2021 spherical of America’s Healthful Foods Financing Initiative’s (HFFI) Qualified Compact Grants Program. Funding for the HFFI grants plan is presented by the United States Division of Agriculture (USDA), licensed by the 2014 Farm Monthly bill. The program offers a single-time catalytic investments in jobs that will improve access to new, healthy food stuff by generating and growing new meals retail and foods enterprises.

The 2021 spherical is the greatest given that the application released in 2018. The 2021 Ask for for Applications (RFA) originally created $4 million available by way of the application. The pool was expanded to $22.6 million by the USDA, as a outcome of the $155 million in supplemental sources for the HFFI plan introduced by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack previous week below the USDA’s framework for reworking the foods technique. With this financial commitment, the HFFI software will function with stakeholders towards acknowledging the expanded vision for the application that starts to handle the complexity of food stuff entry in communities throughout The usa.

“The Biden-Harris Administration and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are dedicated to building local and regional food stuff devices that profit all People, from farmers and ranchers to little corporations and people who at present have to vacation a extensive way from household to locate new, healthful meals,” said USDA Rural Advancement Underneath Secretary Xochitl Torres Smaller. “USDA is proud to associate with Reinvestment Fund to guarantee that these sources get to the communities the place they are required most, so men and women can uncover nutritious food stuff solutions where ever they reside.”

Awardees ended up chosen through a competitive process that was open up to qualified new meals retail projects and food enterprises searching for economic support to get over the higher expenditures and first boundaries to running in underserved regions. The program gained 566 Letter of Interest submissions to the RFA in December 2021. Dependent on eligibility, 359 candidates were being invited to post whole programs in January 2022, with 294 ultimate applications been given by the deadline in March 2022.

As the Countrywide Fund Supervisor, Reinvestment Fund administers the HFFI plan on behalf of USDA. The community-non-public partnership aims to supply ability developing and funding means to promote food enterprise development at scale and make a far more equitable meals technique that supports the wellbeing and economic vibrancy of all Us residents.

“The legacy of racist guidelines like redlining and the resulting disinvestment carry on to hurt communities in so lots of means, which includes through the lack of access to healthful, economical food items,” mentioned Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “We are honored to do the job with the USDA to tackle some of these historical injustices through the HFFI method by investing in food programs assets that not only improve food access in underserved communities but strengthen health, strengthen local economies, mature wealth and excellent work opportunities, and develop critical local community anchors.”

Awardee projects are positioned 46 states, in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington DC. Of the 134 grant awardees, 45% serve rural communities and 81% are owned or led by persons of coloration, low-income persons, ladies, and/or native men and women. Of the awardees, 69% are grocery retail projects. A further 31% of awardees offer you alternative retail versions together with mobile marketplaces, CSAs or food stuff packing containers.

Awardees involve:

• The Nearby Farm Cooperative, a worker-owned, neighborhood-centered cooperative farm business enterprise in Selma, Alabama that seeks to build a cellular gross sales device to provide excellent, new make and staple merchandise to underserved communities in the course of Dallas County.
• Manuel’s Food stuff Marketplace, a community grocer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that will be improving its retail functions by partnering with local farmers to provide fresh create to the keep, producing a commercial kitchen to put together food, and offering weekly membership make bins.
• Nalwoodi Denzhone Group Normal Store, a nonprofit in San Carlos, Arizona, that will tackle the ongoing food challenges struggling with the San Carlos Apache communities by building a normal retailer on a tribally-owned, 90-acre farm.
• Northeast Grocers, a Black-led community coalition that has been operating to deal with the deficiency of grocery retailers in Northeast Kansas Metropolis, Kansas by leveraging regional and philanthropic funding to establish a company product for a cooperative store.

The 2021 HFFI application available money assistance in the kind of a person-time grants to food vendors and food stuff enterprises that aimed to reinforce, grow, and innovate inside of the food stuff retail supply chain. The system helps a selection of corporations, business models, and funds wants of ventures that course of action, distribute, mixture, market place, and market balanced, refreshing, and cost-effective foodstuff to underserved communities and markets. A total checklist of awardees is offered at http://www.investinginfood.com.

When new at USDA Rural Enhancement, the U.S. Office of the Treasury and U.S. Division of Well being and Human Expert services have invested in nutritious meals jobs through Local community Advancement Fiscal Institutions and Neighborhood Advancement Businesses considering that 2010. To day, federal support has totaled $270 million in grants and has leveraged an believed $1 billion in supplemental financing. It has also supported nearly 1,000 grocery and other nutritious foods retail jobs in more than 35 states across the country, revitalizing economies, building employment, and improving overall health.

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About Reinvestment Fund

Reinvestment Fund is a mission-pushed fiscal institution committed to earning communities get the job done for all folks. We bring money and analytical equipment to partnerships that work to make certain that people in communities across the place have the chances they attempt for: inexpensive destinations to reside, entry to healthy foodstuff and well being treatment, schools in which their small children can flourish, and powerful, regional companies that support careers. We use knowledge to have an understanding of marketplaces and how transactions can have the most potent affect, which has persistently earned us the top Aeris ranking of AAA for financial toughness and 4 stars for effects administration. Our asset and hazard administration systems have also attained us an A+ rating from S&P. Considering that our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has supplied above $2.7 billion in funding to reinforce neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and build resilient communities. Understand far more at reinvestment.com.

Media Make contact with

Kavita Vijayan, Reinvestment Fund, 1 2155745893, [email protected]

Resource Reinvestment Fund