The Healthy Neighborhood Store project (HNS) in Omaha, Nebraska is working to improve access to healthy food for the one-third of Douglas County residents by partnering with small neighborhood stores to improve healthy food offerings and support community health. HNS is working with 10 stores ranging in size from three to 45 employees, and reaching 50,000 low-income Omaha residents. As a result of these efforts, HNS has improved sales of healthy items in these stores, while changing customers’ perceptions toward neighborhood store food offerings.

Fare & Square is the culmination of numerous attempts to attract healthy food retailers to the severely distressed city of Chester, PA. Owned and operated by Philabundance, a nonprofit hunger relief organization, this 16,000-square-foot, nonprofit grocery store offers shoppers convenient access to “good food right around the corner” that has not been available in a grocery store format for more than a decade.

Mariposa Food Co-op operates as a full-service, cooperatively-owned and -operated grocery store in Philadelphia, PA. With more than 1,500 members they are active leaders in the cooperative movement. They currently employ 45 people, making them one of the neighborhood’s largest employers. This profile highlights the Co-op's impact on the local community and the funding and financing behind their recent expansion.

Common Market is a regional food hub in Philadelphia, PA. Their mission is to strengthen regional farms by connecting farmers to over 150 public and private institutions. This profile includes project highlights and impacts.

Green City Growers Cooperative (GCGC) is a cooperative urban greenhouse in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio. GCGC provides an example of an innovative and employee-owned food production enterprise that is revitalizing Cleveland’s Central neighborhood while providing quality employment opportunities, building community wealth and assets, and promoting healthy food access both in the neighborhood and citywide.

Communities of color are driving Southeast Florida’s population growth, and their ability to participate and thrive is central to the region’s economic success. But wide racial gaps in income, health, and opportunity place its future at risk. Creating good jobs, connecting youth and vulnerable workers to training and career pathways, and increasing access to economic opportunities can secure a bright economic future for the region. PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) produced this profile in partnership with the Southeast Florida Regional Planning Partnership. You can also download the profile and summary.

Media: South Florida Least Affordable for Housing, Studies Show (SunSentinal) 

The PolicyLink Equity Guide to Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants is designed to help applicants structure equity focused activities into their grant applications. This guide—an update of the inaugural guide released in Summer 2010 in preparation for the first round of grants—provides information on how regions can incorporate social equity into their applications for the second round of funding for sustainable communities grants, announced in early August of 2011. It was written for local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), nonprofits, foundations, and educational institutions who are interested in developing competitive grant applications.

Learn about designing a healthy food financing program and measuring its impact. In particular, the presentation outlines important elements to consider when creating a program, including the eligibility process, application process, and product development. Additionally, understand how to define impact as it relates to healthy food financing and how to develop impact tracking tools.

Discusses how successful healthy food financing models use a combination of different kinds of capital (e.g., grant funding, grants that can be used as credit enhancement, debt capital, loan guarantees and New Market Tax Credits).