In October 2015, more than 40 public health leaders and national experts in food retail, agriculture, distribution and marketing convened in Philadelphia for Healthy Food in Small Stores: Distribution Opportunities to Improve Community Health. This national conference tackled challenges and best practices for distributing healthy food to small stores across the United States. Co-hosted by The Food Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this meeting sought to build connections among experts and identify ways to overcome distribution challenges in ways that are profitable for businesses and provide better access to healthy food in stores. This report outlines the key findings, discussion themes, and other highlights from the conference. 

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. 

• 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.

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.

Healthy food marketing efforts have integrated approaches used by the grocery industry with academic research to create promising and feasible practices that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Hear from experts about how these efforts, commonly referred to as in-store marketing strategies, are changing consumer behavior in grocery stores and supermarkets.

This webinar features the latest evidence from the field, and explore how new research is changing how the public purchases nutritious food. Healthy food marketing efforts are generating healthy outcomes for retailers and for consumers.

A study indicating what type of products dominate grocery shelves across California, which highlights what is available -  and not available - in grocery stores. The Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community campaign is a statewide collaboration between tobacco use prevention, nutrition, and alcohol prevention partners.

Across the country healthy food financing initiatives and programs are helping to increase access to nutritious foods for millions of Americans. Terms such as "food desert" and "underserved" have become commonplace, yet clear definitions can be elusive and vary by state and program. Other challenges include building a robust pipeline of applicants and marketing the program effectively, as well as attracting additional investment to support projects. This webinar discusses how these initiatives are being administered by community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and food access organizations on the local and state level. Audience members learn how program administrators determine the eligibility of projects in areas of need, employ marketing and outreach strategies to attract grocery applicants, and attract additional  investments to healthy food financing programs. Speakers share best practices and case studies from the field. Click here to playthe recording.

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.

ChangeLab Solutions' fact sheet, Fruitful Collaboration, is written for anyone involved in the development or implementation of a healthy food retailer program. It describes the Specialty Crop Block Grant funding stream and how to tap into it. You can also download our background paper, "Can the Speciality Crop Block Grant Program Support Efforts to Bring Fruits and Vegetables into Small Food Retail Stores?" which describes the analysis that informed the fact sheet.

This toolkit from ChangeLab Solutions provides a range of tools and strategies for advocates to identify and work with prospective WIC vendors, and to help these retailers upgrade their offerings in accordance with the new, healthier WIC food packages.