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Supermarket Campaign

Improving access to supermarkets in underserved communities

RECENT NEWS

Bipartisan "Healthy Food Financing" Bills Would Create Jobs and Cut Dietary Diseases

A bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate yesterday introduced bills (S. 1926, H.R. 3525) that will invest $125 million to reduce the number of low-income American living in areas with inadequate access to healthy food - all while helping combat the childhood obesity crisis nationwide and potentially creating or preserving thousands of permanent and construction jobs. The re-introduction of the well-supported legislation from the 111th Congress will establish a Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The HFFI legislation would direct the USDA to designate (through a competitive process) a Community Development Financing Institution (CDFI) as a National Fund Manager, responsible for administering one-time loans and grants and leveraging additional private dollars to create the Healthy Food Financing fund.

Learn more: Press Release - Bipartisan "Healthy Food Financing" Bills Would Create Jobs and Cut Dietary Diseases (PDF)

The Issue

Lack of access to healthy, affordable foods has a direct, measurable impact on our health. Research has shown that the presence of supermarkets and grocery stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables in a community helps people maintain a healthy weight. Unfortunately, millions of Americans live in communities without a local grocery store. Many families, particularly those in lower income neighborhoods and rural communities, must travel long distances to reach the nearest store that sells fresh produce and other foods necessary to maintain a healthy diet.

Learn more: The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to
Healthy Food and Why It Matters (PDF)

The Food Trust Solution

Together with local partners The Food Trust is successfully addressing the lack of supermarket access in Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana and Illinois. The Food Trust combines rigorous research and policy advocacy to forge innovative public/private partnerships that bring supermarkets and other fresh food retail markets to areas of need.

Our approach is based on a successful campaign first launched in Philadelphia in 2001. This campaign led to the creation of the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a first of its kind grant and loan program to encourage supermarket development in underserved neighborhoods throughout the state. Recognized by Harvard University as one of the nation’s most innovative government programs, 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.

At present, The Food Trust is laying the groundwork for similar initiatives in New Jersey, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona and Minnesota.

Learn more: Our work in Pennsylvania: The Fresh Food Financing Initiative

Our work in New York: The Healthy Food / Healthy Communities
and New York City FRESH Initiatives

Our work in Louisiana: The Fresh Food Retail Incentive Program
and the Healthy Food Retail Act

Our work in Illinois: The Illinois Fresh Food Fund

The national Healthy Food Financing Initiative

Contact The Food Trust’s Brian Lang.

This work is made possible by generous support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kraft Foods Foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Arthur M. Blank Foundation.