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Financing for Healthy Foods

Overview

Nearly 30 million Americans live in communities without access to supermarkets and affordable, healthy foods. Capital Impact Partner’s new Policy Brief examines the federal government's Health Food Financing Initiative and the innovative work of Capital Impact Partners and other Community Development Financial Institutions to expand access to healthy foods in low-income communities.

Profile on ShopRite at Springfield Avenue Marketplace

Overview

In the Newark University Heights neighborhood, 11.5 acres have sat vacant since the 1967 Newark Riots, despite decades of effort to revitalize the community. This block is the site of the future Springfield Avenue Marketplace, a 274,000-square-foot retail and housing development that will provide 152 housing units and be anchored by a new 67,000-square-foot ShopRite supermarket.
 
This ShopRite is owned and operated by Neil Greenstein, a third-generation grocer. To ensure that the store meets the needs of its customers, Greenstein spent two years meeting with community members and plans to purchase produce from the Greater Newark Conservancy community garden across the street. Greenstein is partnering with Uplift Solutions, an organization that supports the development of supermarkets in underserved communities, to tailor his ShopRite to the area’s needs.

A Library for West Virginia Good Food Champions

Overview

The West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition has compiled a growing library of free resources for farmers, food businesses, advocates, and others to explore studies and reports focused on local food in the West Virginia region. Reports include assessments of food hubs, the FSMA produce rule and cooperatives, among others. 

CED-HFFI Grantee Highlights

Overview

Highlights from Access to Healthy Food and Why it Matters, a November 2013 report from PolicyLink and The Food Trust:
 
  • Accessing healthy food remains a challenge for many families, especially those living in low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and rural areas.
  • Living closer to healthy food retail is associated with better eating habits and decreased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases.
  • Healthy food retail stimulates economic activity.

Anatomy of a Supermarket Purchase

Overview

Of course we make the decisions about what to eat and feed our families. But what influences the choices we make?  Our new video “Anatomy of a Supermarket Purchase” highlights several strategies food companies use to influence what people buy and eat. 
 
Drawing from advances in psychology and companies’ own marketing strategies, our video shows how companies are able to influence the food choices of even the best intentioned and most disciplined people, often so subtly that we don’t even realize it.

Food for Every Child: The Need for Healthy Food Financing in Michigan

Overview

Michigan must address the significant need for fresh food resources in many of its communities. A myriad of factors have created a shortage of healthy food resources in lower-income areas across the state, creating a public health
crisis.
 
Despite having the nation’s second most diverse agriculture industry, 17.9% of Michigan’s residents are food insecure, meaning they lack reliable access to healthy food. In Kent County, home to Grand Rapids, the largest city in West Michigan, 80,000 people are food insecure.
 
More than 1.8 million Michigan residents, including an estimated 300,000 children, live in lower-income communities with limited
supermarket access. Underserved communities can be found in rural areas such as Hillsdale, Tuscola, Sanilac, Cold Water and Allegan, as well as in urban centers including Flint and Detroit.

Double Up Food Bucks: A Five-year Success Story

Overview

This report shares how our Double Up Food Bucks program grew from a small pilot in Detroit to a statewide success story that supported more than 200,000 low-income families and more than 1,000 farmers in 2013 alone, and has had a greater than $5 million effect on Michigan’s economy.

Profile: Mandela MarketPlace

Overview

Mandela MarketPlace grew out of grassroots community organizing efforts to shift resource dynamics, giving residents access to healthy food retail and neighborhood development funding. Incorporated in 2004, Mandela MarketPlace is a nonprofit organization that currently works in partnership with local farmers, local residents, and community-based businesses to build health, wealth, and assets through cooperative food enterprises.

Read this in-depth case study and accompanying photo essay for more information. 

A Healthier Future for Miami-Dade County: Expanding Supermarket Access in Areas of Need

Overview

This report documents the uneven distribution of supermarket access throughout Miami-Dade County and identifies areas in greatest need of healthy food retail development.The lack of supermarket access and increased incidence of diet-relateddiseases in lower-income neighborhoods suggest the need for incentiveprograms and policies to support healthy food retail development inunderserved areas.

Understanding the Role of Community Development Finance in Improving Access to Healthy Food

Overview

Describes the role CDFIs play in financing healthy food retail and identifies how public health practitioners can partner with CDFIs to expand access to fresh, healthy food. CDFIs offer an alternative to conventional lending for financing supermarkets and other small businesses. The flexibility they provide in financing projects can help retailers offset the higher cost of opening stores in underserved areas.

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