Reinvestment Fund and the USDA Invest $3 Million to Enhance Healthy Food Access Across Atlanta
In April 2024, Reinvestment Fund awarded $40,336,270 in grant funding for the Local and Regional Healthy Food Financing Partnerships Program (HFFI Partnerships Program) to support food financing programs in rural, urban, and Tribal communities across 20 states and Washington D.C.
Among the 16 awardees of the HFFI Partnerships Program is The Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative, which includes partners Invest Atlanta and Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE). Invest Atlanta, the City’s official economic development authority, and ACE, an Atlanta-based nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), have a proven track record of delivering affordable financing to underserved areas. They will join forces through the HFFI Partnership program to continue this vital work.
Since its inception, America’s HFFI has disbursed $25.4 million in grant awards to 162 projects across 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Mayor Andre Dickens unveiled the investment, highlighting Atlanta’s inclusion as one of 16 public-private partnerships to benefit from the new program. The $2.97 million investment will enhance food supply chain resilience, improve access to nutritious foods, foster job creation, and revitalize low-income neighborhoods in Atlanta.
“Atlanta’s selection for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative reinforces our ongoing commitment to reaching underserved communities and addressing the pressing issue of food access and food insecurity,” said Mayor Andre Dickens in a press release released by his office. “We are thankful to the USDA for this investment that will enable us to increase access to healthy foods, stimulate economic development, and foster a more vibrant and resilient city for all residents.”
Atlanta’s Challenging Food Landscape
Reinvestment Fund first opened its Atlanta office in 2018. Through various initiatives, the CDFI has successfully collaborated with local partners to finance projects that enhance access to essential services, including affordable housing, healthcare, and education.
Atlanta is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, which creates a diverse range of opportunities to support communities across a continuum of situations. Reinvestment Fund’s recently released Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis identifies places across the country where residents experience inequitable access to grocery stores. In the Atlanta region, the number of people living with limited access to grocery stores increased to nearly 650,000 people, an increase of over 20% from 2010 to 2020.
Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis demonstrates that in the Atlanta region, the number of people living with limited access to grocery stores increased to nearly 650,000 people, an increase of over 20% from 2010 to 2020.
According to Reinvestment Fund’s Chief Policy Analyst, Dr. Michael Norton, “In rapidly growing regions like Atlanta the diversity of places with limited access require a differentiated approach to meeting the needs of people living in different neighborhoods across the region. For example, at the outer edges of the region, food retail tends to lag residential development–these are places that will have the population and demand to support new full-service grocery stores as these new developments expand and mature. However, in more fully developed parts of the region there are an increasing number of smaller pockets of underserved areas–places without enough residents to support a full-service store but where people have inadequate and inequitable access to grocery stores.”
Meeting these diverse needs requires creative thinking and diverse approaches to ensuring equitable food access for residents across the region.
About the Public-Private Partnership
The Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative will use funding to conduct a food retail gap analysis, research city-level policies that impact food access, and deliver technical assistance to food retailers seeking to invest in Atlanta’s communities with limited food access. The public-private partnership will particularly focus on businesses that aim to enhance food accessibility and are committed to staying in, expanding within, or entering disinvested areas lacking access to healthy, fresh food.
ACE will work with Invest Atlanta to develop and deploy food enterprise-specific loan products and explore options for food enterprise grants. ACE anticipates deploying at least $1,000,000 in loan capital, enabling strong and healthy growth of those businesses and the communities they serve.
Dr. Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of Invest Atlanta, stated, “Programs like HFFI are vital to our communities because ninety-eight percent of disinvested neighborhoods in Atlanta include census tracts that lack access to healthy food. The HFFI funding expands our continuous efforts to overcome food access challenges and help food retailers, including those owned by and people of color, looking to invest in our communities.”
Building a More Equitable Food System
Since 2004, Reinvestment Fund has pioneered a comprehensive approach to strengthening food systems to improve access to healthy food and economic opportunity in the food sector for underserved communities. Through a range of programs, we provide research tools, grants, loans, and technical assistance resources to support community-driven solutions. HFFI is one of several initiatives led by Reinvestment Fund.
As the National Fund Manager for HFFI, Reinvestment Fund is responsible for leveraging private capital, establishing financing and technical assistance programs, and channeling capital to fund eligible projects and partnerships. The HFFI Partnerships Program investments will provide critical resources to public-private local partners, who directly reduce barriers and increase access to an equitable, resilient food system that benefits thousands of families. The investment, representing 75 local organizations across the country, is projected to enable more than 750 loans and grants over the next five years, supporting over 1,400 food retail and supply chain projects and sustaining over 2,500 jobs.
Olivia Chatman, Reinvestment Fund’s Atlanta-based Program Manager, expressed enthusiasm about the public-private partnership initiative in Atlanta, stating, “This latest investment builds on Reinvestment Fund’s ongoing commitment to creating vibrant, equitable, and resilient communities throughout Atlanta. By leveraging these resources, The Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative is poised to make significant strides in enhancing healthy food access and building a more resilient and equitable food system for all Atlantans.”