(Atlanta | July 8, 2025) – Today, Reinvestment Fund, a nationally-focused Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with offices in Philadelphia and Atlanta, announced they will be awarding nearly $1 million in grants and technical assistance this month as a part of their Southeast Food Forward (SFF) program, aimed at providing funding for community-driven food enterprises that increase healthy food access in underserved communities across the Southeastern United States.
Through SFF, $946,215 will be awarded in direct grants and $47,700 in technical assistance to projects involving market-based food enterprise business models that are operating in the post-harvest food supply chain. Awarded projects consist of retailers, processors, aggregators, and distributors participating in direct to consumer sales and retail or institutional distribution of healthy food. Particularly, SFF prioritized cooperative-inspired and community-driven business models reflected by the organizations’ diverse and relevant memberships, ownership structure, or partnerships that integrate collaboration, ultimately bolstering deep community engagement and trust building with the communities to be served through their operations. These projects will serve communities in states across the Southeast, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The 13 awardees include:
“Selected grantees are on the front lines of advancing local and regional food access in their communities,” said Anne Misak, Program Director for Equitable Food Systems at Reinvestment Fund. “Grants like this are not just funding, but fuel for innovation, resilience, and impact. By supporting these organizations, Reinvestment Fund is investing in local leadership, sustainable food systems, and healthier futures for all.”
Funding for SFF is made possible through Reinvestment Fund’s Equitable Food System – Southeast Initiative (EFS-SI), a project funded by Walmart Foundation, with the goal of addressing limited food access and stymied growth of food enterprises.
Reinvestment Fund is committed to providing the necessary information and resources to help communities, both directly and by helping organizations working on the ground. Along with SFF, funding through EFS-SI made possible an update to Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Analysis (LSA), a tool that looks at criteria such as income, distance to existing stores, and car ownership rates to identify places where households have inadequate and inequitable access to supermarkets. In particular, the Georgia case study is integral to Southeast intel as it relates to specific community funding. Through this study, stakeholders can determine target investment areas with the greatest need and opportunity and offer grantees valuable insights into market dynamics and community food access gaps they may be working to address.
Additionally, EFS-SI funded the creation of a National Food Access & Financing Landscape Dashboard, which serves as an interactive mapping tool for stakeholders working to improve equitable access to fresh food. Bringing together multiple data sources, including the LSA, into a single place, the dashboard can be used to provide insights on geographic food access measures and summarize key socio-economic characteristics for counties across the country. Users can also identify places eligible for New Markets Tax Credit investments and locate Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) by state that could potentially invest in food access businesses.
“Access to healthy, affordable food is a fundamental human right, not a privilege,” said Don Hinkle-Brown, CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “We are committed to supporting community-driven solutions that eliminate barriers to food security and promote equity. By investing in local initiatives, we aim to ensure that every individual has the opportunity to access healthy food for themselves and their family.”
To learn more about the Reinvestment Fund and SFF, please visit: https://www.reinvestment.com/grants/southeast-food-forward/
Media Contact: media@reinvestment.com
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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.