The City of New Orleans prioritized healthy food retailing in the strategic rebuilding of the city by creating the Fresh Food Retailer Initiative Program (FFRI). The program provides direct financial assistance to retail businesses by awarding forgivable and/or low-interest loans to supermarkets and other fresh food retailers.

A primer on the successful financing of healthy food systems. There are five case studies of food system enterprises that work to grow, process, aggregate/distribute, and/or retail healthy food in low-income communities. The primer also includes a sector-by-sector analysis of food sector capital needs and interdependencies and an introduction to Food Policy Councils.

The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and Reinvestment Fund performed a detailed analysis of supermarket access in 10 metro areas, and the results are discussed in this video.

Governor Brown signed AB 581, the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative (CHFFI) into law in 2011 – marking a great step towards improving health and economic conditions for the nearly 1.7 million California residents living in low-income communities with limited access to healthy food.