Reinvestment Fund Awards $22.6 Million to Improve Healthy Food Access in Underserved Communities | News
Grant awards to 134 initiatives to increase access to healthful foods in their communities.
PHILADELPHIA, June 10, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Reinvestment Fund today introduced $22.6 million in economical guidance awards to 134 initiatives through the 2021 spherical of America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative’s (HFFI) Focused Small Grants Plan. Funding for the HFFI grants program is provided by the United States Office of Agriculture (USDA), licensed by the 2014 Farm Monthly bill. The application gives a single-time catalytic investments in initiatives that will enhance access to fresh new, healthy foods by developing and increasing fresh foodstuff retail and food items enterprises.
The 2021 round is the premier because the plan launched in 2018. The 2021 Request for Programs (RFA) initially created $4 million available via the method. The pool was expanded to $22.6 million by the USDA, as a result of the $155 million in further means for the HFFI system introduced by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack past week below the USDA’s framework for transforming the food stuff technique. With this investment decision, the HFFI software will function with stakeholders towards realizing the expanded vision for the plan that starts to tackle the complexity of food items accessibility in communities across The usa.
“The Biden-Harris Administration and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are fully commited to making community and regional meals techniques that advantage all Us citizens, from farmers and ranchers to tiny firms and family members who at this time have to vacation a very long way from home to find fresh new, healthful foods,” said USDA Rural Growth Under Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. “USDA is very pleased to lover with Reinvestment Fund to guarantee that these sources attain the communities wherever they are required most, so people today can obtain healthy foodstuff alternatives where ever they stay.”
Awardees had been chosen by means of a competitive method that was open up to eligible contemporary food items retail projects and food items enterprises looking for financial guidance to get over the greater expenditures and first limitations to functioning in underserved places. The system obtained 566 Letter of Fascination submissions to the RFA in December 2021. Dependent on eligibility, 359 candidates ended up invited to submit entire purposes in January 2022, with 294 ultimate purposes gained by the deadline in March 2022.
As the Nationwide Fund Manager, Reinvestment Fund administers the HFFI plan on behalf of USDA. The general public-personal partnership aims to provide potential making and funding methods to promote foodstuff small business growth at scale and make a additional equitable foods process that supports the wellbeing and financial vibrancy of all Individuals.
“The legacy of racist insurance policies like redlining and the resulting disinvestment continue on to hurt communities in so many methods, together with via the absence of accessibility to wholesome, reasonably priced food,” reported Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “We are honored to operate with the USDA to address some of these historic injustices by way of the HFFI application by investing in meals devices belongings that not only improve food items accessibility in underserved communities but boost health, improve nearby economies, improve prosperity and good quality jobs, and create necessary community anchors.”
Awardee assignments are located 46 states, in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington DC. Of the 134 grant awardees, 45% serve rural communities and 81% are owned or led by folks of coloration, very low-profits people, women, and/or indigenous persons. Of the awardees, 69% are grocery retail jobs. Yet another 31% of awardees offer different retail designs which include cellular markets, CSAs or food bins.
Awardees include things like:
- The Community Farm Cooperative, a worker-owned, neighborhood-dependent cooperative farm small business in Selma, Alabama that seeks to establish a cell income device to provide excellent, fresh new create and staple goods to underserved communities throughout Dallas County.
- Manuel’s Food stuff Market place, a community grocer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that will be strengthening its retail functions by partnering with area farmers to convey contemporary develop to the retailer, developing a commercial kitchen to prepare food items, and presenting weekly subscription produce packing containers.
- Nalwoodi Denzhone Community Normal Retail store, a nonprofit in San Carlos, Arizona, that will deal with the ongoing foodstuff issues facing the San Carlos Apache communities by building a normal shop on a tribally-owned, 90-acre farm.
- Northeast Grocers, a Black-led neighborhood coalition that has been performing to deal with the absence of grocery suppliers in Northeast Kansas City, Kansas by leveraging neighborhood and philanthropic funding to build a company model for a cooperative retailer.
The 2021 HFFI software offered economic help in the form of one particular-time grants to foodstuff shops and foodstuff enterprises that aimed to reinforce, broaden, and innovate inside the meals retail source chain. The system assists a range of organizations, business models, and cash wants of ventures that process, distribute, mixture, current market, and promote healthier, refreshing, and cost-effective food items to underserved communities and marketplaces. A total listing of awardees is available at http://www.investinginfood.com.
Even though new at USDA Rural Growth, the U.S. Division of the Treasury and U.S. Department of Wellbeing and Human Companies have invested in healthier food stuff assignments as a result of Community Improvement Money Establishments and Local community Advancement Businesses given that 2010. To date, federal assistance has totaled $270 million in grants and has leveraged an estimated $1 billion in extra financing. It has also supported approximately 1,000 grocery and other healthier food items retail assignments in more than 35 states throughout the country, revitalizing economies, generating careers, and enhancing health.
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About Reinvestment Fund
Reinvestment Fund is a mission-driven money institution committed to producing communities do the job for all people today. We convey economic and analytical resources to partnerships that work to guarantee that individuals in communities across the country have the alternatives they attempt for: inexpensive places to stay, accessibility to nutritious food items and well being treatment, schools where by their kids can prosper, and powerful, local organizations that aid jobs. We use details to recognize marketplaces and how transactions can have the most impressive effects, which has continually attained us the leading Aeris score of AAA for fiscal toughness and 4 stars for impression administration. Our asset and chance management techniques have also attained us an A+ ranking from S&P. Due to the fact our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has furnished in excess of $2.7 billion in funding to fortify neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and create resilient communities. Study much more at reinvestment.com.
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