Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative Opens 2026 Funding Round

PHILADELPHIA, PA October 20, 2026 – Today, Reinvestment Fund, a nationally-focused Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) headquartered in Philadelphia, joins the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to issue a call for proposals for $240,500 in total funding to support innovative and community-driven projects aimed at creating more healthy food options through the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (PFJI). Non-profits, businesses, cooperatives and collectives can apply for up to $50,000 each by the application deadline of December 4, 2026, by 11:59 pm ET.

PFJI aims to empower communities to exercise their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food. PFJI supports community-led solutions in areas where access to healthier food is needed the most. Informed by health justice, the collective movement to heal society and remove barriers that prevent individual and community well-being, PFJI strengthens existing neighborhood assets by providing funding for innovative and transformative projects that work to further food justice.

PFJI was first launched in 2019 by Reinvestment Fund and the Health Department’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (CDIP). Since 2019, the initiative has awarded nearly $3 million in grants to 41 organizations to advance community-driven solutions to historic food injustice.

“With funding, community leaders and local organizations can expand healthy food businesses, maintain urban gardens and farms, distribute culturally relevant food, enhance the local food system, and build community resilience,” said Dr. Kinnari Chandriani, Director of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

PFJI is open to businesses and organizations within the city of Philadelphia but all eligible applicants must:

• Be led by people or organizations made up of members of those communities they serve
• Embody a health and food justice vision
• Have deep roots in a community, broad citywide reach or the potential for systems change or scaling up over time.

Projects could include ideas for new or expanded initiatives across the food supply chain, including growing, making, distributing, selling, or recovering food, providing free or emergency food or meals, or other ideas. PFJI will also award priority points to businesses and organizations that meet the following criteria:

• Previously unfunded by PFJI,
• Located in or serving areas with higher rates of poverty and food insecurity,
• Demonstrate a significant organizational capacity gap,
• Led by people with lived experience with health or food injustice, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, immigrants and/or people living with disabilities

“PFJI is a unique program because it is so flexible—it supports a variety of community-driven solutions working to eliminate historic and systemic barriers to equitable food systems,” said Anne Misak, Managing Director of Equitable Food Systems at Reinvestment Fund. “We want to hear from entrepreneurs, organizations, or people working to build food justice in Philadelphia, particularly those who haven’t had access to resources in the past.”

To learn more about the initiative and how to apply by December 4, 2026, at 11:59 pm ET, visit www.reinvestment.com/philadelphiafoodjusticeinitiative/

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About Philadelphia Department of Public Health

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) exists to protect and promote the health of all Philadelphians and to provide a safety net for people who are disproportionately impacted by health-limiting societal factors. Within PDPH, the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (CDIP) works to cultivate safe, healthy, and livable communities by reducing our city’s burden of chronic disease and injury. PDPH-CDIP will provide the funding for this opportunity.

About Reinvestment Fund

Reinvestment Fund is a mission-driven financial institution committed to making communities work for all people. We bring financial and analytical tools to partnerships that work to ensure that people in communities across the country have the opportunities they strive for: affordable places to live, access to nutritious food and health care, schools where their children can flourish, and strong, local businesses that support jobs. We use data to understand markets and how transactions can have the most powerful impact, which has consistently earned us the top Aeris rating of AAA for financial strength and four stars for impact management. Our asset and risk management systems have also earned us an AA- rating from S&P. Since our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has provided over $3.2 billion in financing to strengthen neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and build resilient communities. Learn more at reinvestment.com.