U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC) announced the grand opening of Northgate Gonzalez Markets in Inglewood, Calif. The $7.6 million supermarket received more than $2.5 million in new markets tax credit (NMTC) equity from USBCDC and a $4 million term loan from NCB Capital Impact and The California Endowment
Greater prosperity in Bradford and the rest of Vermont will require better access to health care, food, workforce development and education.That was the conclusion of a local panel of experts, as well as many audience members who attended the first Campaign for Vermont (CFV) public forum. CFV is a statewide, independent and non-partisan “ideas campaign.” It now has more than 350 partners, and has published prosperity-minded position papers on energy, education, health care and employment.
It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents.
The hottest trend in the grocery business might just be setting up shop in food deserts. Since 2010, when Rahm Emanuel adopted the issue during his mayoral campaign, big retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Walgreen Co. have made well-publicized commitments to build stores in underserved neighborhoods in Chicago and other urban centers.
Learn the eight steps to follow to get more fruits and vegetables in your neighborhood with this helpful California-specific factsheet, developed by ChangeLab Solutions.
Like a missionary, Michael Bailey, a county health worker, spends his days driving his beat-up Nissan around this city’s poorest neighborhood, spreading the word in barber shops and convenience stores about the benefits of healthy diet and exercise. “Mr. Bailey believes that food is slowly killing his community here, and signing people up for a program to prevent heart disease is his way of saving souls.
A profile on Liberty Heights ShopRite located in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Howard Park. The supermarket is a joint venture by two seasoned ShopRite operators, Jeff Brown and the Klein family. The partnership will combine the Klein family’s 90 year background of owning and operating stores in suburban Maryland and Jeff Brown’s experience in running urban-based stores in the Philadelphia region. The project also stands as an example of a successful partnership involving Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), the Howard Park Civic Association, Calvin Rodwell Elementary School’s Child First Afterschool Program, Klein Family Markets, UpLift Solutions, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), City First Bank, JPMorgan Chase and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF).
This Altarum Institute Policy Roundtable examined innovative approaches, including financial incentives, to encourage healthy food choices by SNAP program participants. We also examined the added economic benefit that can occur when more SNAP dollars are spent on local food and circulate in the local economy. Speakers from Altarum’s Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Fair Food Network, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation discussed what is being tested, and what is known to be working, in this critical effort to improve health status through healthier food purchases supported by SNAP.
The Healthy Food Access Fund is a lending program that provides capital financing for full-service grocery businesses or developers with a grocery tenant. It was created to help grocers succeed in underserved markets and is designed with those grocers' needs in mind.