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Related Programs:

Corner Store Campaign
The Food Trust’s Corner Store Campaign seeks to reduce the incidence of diet-related disease and obesity by improving the snack food choices made by adolescents in corner stores.

Healthy Food Financing Initiative
Encouraging the development of food retail in underserved communities nationwide.

School Food and Beverage Reform
A reform effort that works to improve the policy on vending machine snacks.

Supermarket Campaign
Our multi-state effort to improve access to supermarkets in underserved communities.

 

 

 

Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative

Encouraging the development of food retail in underserved Pennsylvania communities

RECENT NEWS

Obama Admistration Praises Fresh Food Financing Initiative

The Obama Administration kicked off its "National Conversation on the Future of Urban and Metropolitan America" with a lively town hall discussion in Philadelphia. The topic of conversation among cabinet secretaries and other members of the administration: the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) and the connection between food access, healthy kids and healthy communities. 

FFFI is "a prime example of the type of collaborative partnership and innovating thinking needed in urban and metropolitan communities across the nation," the White House said.

Learn more: Philadelphia Inquirer: Obama officials come to applaud more Phila. supermarkets

The Issue

Just a decade ago, a national study showed that Philadelphia had the second lowest number of supermarkets per capita of major cities in the United States. Lack of food access was particularly severe in low-income neighborhoods and was linked to high rates of diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

The Food Trust Solution

The Food Trust called upon state and local governments to take the lead in developing a response to this problem and convened a group of leaders from the supermarket industry, government, and civic sector.  This group of experts examined the barriers to supermarket development in underserved communities and identified recommendations to address the issue.

Under the leadership of Rep. Dwight Evans, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acted on these recommendations by creating the Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a first-of-its-kind grant and loan program to encourage supermarket development in underserved neighborhoods throughout the state. 

This $120 million public-private partnership is managed by The Reinvestment Fund, in partnership with The Food Trust and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, and has become a model for communities nationwide committed to combating obesity and improving food access. Harvard University named the initiative one of the nation’s most innovative government programs, and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention selected the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative to receive its Pioneering Innovation Award for the initiative's efforts toward obesity control and prevention.

But most importantly, the Fresh Food Financing Initiative has provide funding for 88 fresh-food retail projects in 34 Pennsylvania counties, creating or preserving more than 5,000 jobs and improving access to healthy food for more than half a million people.

Learn more: Creation of the Fresh Food Financing Initiative

The Fresh Food Financing Initiative’s Projects (PDF)

Contact The Food Trust’s Caroline Harries