This practice brief by Food Dignity describes the development of East New York Farmers Market in Brooklyn as one of country's largest community based markets, highlighting lessons learned about the essential combination of people, products, and place.  

The Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance (HNSA) Toolkit offers resources and tools to help communities transform neighborhood corner stores into local access points for healthy food and fresh produce. HSNA is a program through Mandela Marketplace, a non-profit organization that works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through cooperative food enterprises in West Oakland, California and other low income communities.

Common Market is a regional food hub whose mission is to increase the availability of local, sustainably grown farm food throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas. This case study provides an in-depth look at Common Market's growth and development, including efforts to build financial sustainability. 

Too many residents of bi-state Kansas City lack sufficient access to healthy, affordable food. Despite being in the heart of one of the richest agricultural regions in the nation, bi-state Kansas City is home to many communities without supermarkets, grocery stores and other retailers of healthy food. Limited access to nutritious food is an issue in specific neighborhoods, such as Douglas Sumner in Kansas City, Kansas, and Ivanhoe and Marlborough in Kansas City, Missouri. To address these concerns, the Kansas City Grocery Access Task Force was convened by KC Healthy Kids, IFF and The Food Trust. The task force is a cohort of leaders from the grocery industry, state and local governments, as well as the community and economic development, public health and civic sectors. The task force developed nine recommendations for state and local public policies that will improve the availability of healthy, affordable food in underserved areas through the development of supermarkets and grocery stores.

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program incentivizes private investment in low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax return in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial institutions called Community Development Entities (CDEs). The NMTC program has a proven track record in expanding access to healthy foods by encouraging private sector investment in underserved communities. This webinar serves as an introduction to a complex financing tool and explores some examples of how NMTCs are being used to finance a variety of projects designed to improve access to healthy foods.

Grocery stores and food co-ops can improve health outcomes, increase employment opportunities, spur economic development, and create access to opportunity for residents of low-income communities and communities of color. Integrating equity into your economic plan will help grow your grocery store or food co-op. This resource includes some strategies to increase store profits by buildinga sustainable community of opportunity where everyone can participate and prosper.

Food hubs have the potential to create a more equitable food system that values quality jobs, healthy food access, local economic growth, small business development, and sustainable agriculture. Food hubs designed with these equity considerations can provide opportunities for growers and producers, aggregators and distributors, and the consumer. This resource outlines strategies for developing profitable, equitable food hubs that create more just, fair, and inclusive food systems and local economies.