Reinvestment Fund Winter Newsletter
Updated Study Identifies Opportunities to Strengthen Local Food Systems
Access to healthy, fresh, affordable food is not just a matter of convenience but a cornerstone of individual and community well-being. However, due to historic and systemic barriers in the United States—such as disinvestment, income inequality, transportation barriers, and food pricing—8.5% of residents living in Limited-Access Areas must travel nearly twice the distance to reach a full-service supermarket compared to residents in similar areas with higher incomes. For over a decade, Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) Analysis has been used to identify opportunities to strengthen local food systems through a combination of traditional full-service supermarkets and smaller format interventions that fill gaps in residents’ ability to access fresh food in their communities.
The 2023 update to the LSA Analysis enhances the utility of the tool by:
- Expanding the geographic application of the analysis to the entire United States.
- Incorporating the most recent data related to supermarket locations, sales, and socio-demographics.
- Categorizing Limited-Access Areas into three distinct types.
CDFIs and other stakeholders interested in improving food access can use the LSA to identify areas that have both inadequate and inequitable access to healthy food and sufficient market demand to support new or expanded food retail operations.
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One of the Oldest Early Childcare Education Programs in the Nation Expands to Meet Community Needs
For more than 25 years, Reinvestment Fund has made targeted investments in early childcare education programs that allow more children to get the high-quality education they deserve. In this tradition, Reinvestment Fund financing will support St. Michael’s School and Nursery’s renovation and expansion project, which includes increasing its enrollment to serve nearly 200 students. St. Michael’s School and Nursery is the oldest early childhood program in Delaware—and one of the oldest in the nation. Located in the city of Wilmington, the school has nurtured a healthy learning environment for thousands of children in their first 5 years of life. To meet the community’s current needs and to address critical gaps in childcare services for today’s families, St. Michael’s School and Nursery will complete a nearly $7 million project to modernize and expand its 28,900-square-foot childcare center.
News & Resources
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Welcome to Reinvestment Fund’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Tiffany Canady.
- Reinvestment Fund promotes key leaders: Emily Dowdall, President of Policy Solutions, and Tiffany Patterson, Chief Communications and Mission Officer.
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Khaliff Davis, CFA, Managing Director, Fund Management, is joining the Center for Community Investment’s 2024-2025 cohort of Fulcrum Fellows.
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Welcome to new staff Caitlin Misiaszek, Mike Ganezer, Alexis Shivick, Lily Walker, Jamitress Bowden, Ram Kanagasundaram, Ben Anderson, and Tessa Fall.
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The Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) is supporting Chicory Market, a full-service grocery store on a mission to improve access to healthy, affordable food and support connectivity of the local food system in Oxford, Mississippi.
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At the Invest Health Nashville Convening, our Chief Credit Officer, Kareem Thomas, and Chief Program Officer, Sara Vernon Sterman, facilitated a peer-learning session with 33 Invest Health City Teams from across the country.
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Reinvestment Fund enjoyed coming together with colleagues and community partners at the 40th anniversary of the UNCF Atlanta Mayor’s Masked Ball.
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New funding from Reinvestment Fund and local investors will fuel PolicyMap‘s mission to be the most trusted U.S. resource for geographic data.
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Reinvestment Fund, with our CDFI partner, the Low Income Investment Fund, is supporting Ethos Classical, a tuition-free public charter school in Atlanta, to build a brand-new facility.
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Our recent evaluation explores the impact of the Eviction Diversion Program (EDP) on housing stability in Philadelphia as the city has emerged from the pandemic.
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Early Childhood Education Access research continues with our updated report on Child Care Access in D.C., commissioned by the Bainum Family Foundation. New data also available for estimating changes in the supply of and demand for child care in Philadelphia marks Reinvestment Fund’s 10th update of the analysis with support from The William Penn Foundation.
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Urban Land Institute’s latest article features the Growing Diverse Housing Developers (GDHD) Initiative and real estate developers from across the country working in partnership to bridge the real estate gap.
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Nadine Ngouabe Dlodlo, founder of Women’s Home Preservation (WHP), shares what influenced her to become a housing developer and how her business is generating positive change in the community.
Learn more about the Growing Diverse Housing Developers initiative led by Reinvestment Fund, Capital Impact Partners, Low Income Investment Fund, and Raza Development Fund and funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation. The GDHD initiative aims to work with top U.S. housing development firms led by BIPOC owners to create racially equitable, affordable, adequate housing solutions.
Check out recent news from WHP, inspiring students to do great work in their community.
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Latest Insights
Initial Evaluation of the City of Philadelphia’s Renters’ Access Act
The Renters’ Access Act (RAA) articulated what the City of Philadelphia defines as uniform tenant screening criteria, creates a right to dispute a landlord’s decision to decline an application from a prospective tenant, and right to a next available unit should the dispute produce evidence that the prospective tenant was a qualified applicant.