News

Reinvestment Fund is inviting applications for financial and technical assistance through the 2020 round of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Targeted Small Grants Program. Funding for the HFFI Targeted Small Grants Program is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), authorized by the Farm Bill. Reinvestment Fund serves as the national fund manager for the HFFI program at USDA. The 2020 HFFI round significantly increases the available funding compared to the previous round, offering $3 million in grant funds for food retail and food enterprises working to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, to create and preserve quality jobs, and to revitalize low-income communities.

“A resilient food system is essential to ensure that all Americans, regardless of where they live or how much they make, can get the food they need to keep their families healthy,” said Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to sustain a robust food system that serves all communities. We hope that these HFFI investments can seed improved access to healthy food in underserved communities and also fundamentally strengthen local food economies.”

Reinvestment Fund is inviting applications for the 2020 round of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Targeted Small Grants program. The 2020 HFFI round significantly increases the available funding compared to the previous round, making $3 million in grant funds available for food retail and food enterprises working to improve access to healthy food in underserved areas, to create and preserve quality jobs, and to revitalize low-income communities. Funding for HFFI is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), authorized by the Farm Bill. Financial assistance is available in the form of direct grants to projects selected through a competitive application process. The program is open to food retail and food enterprises working to improve healthy food access. Read More.

Reinvestment Fund has begun awarding grants to childcare providers, early intervention and home visiting service organizations under the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE) program. PEFSEE is a collaboration of the William Penn Foundation, Vanguard’s Strong Start for Kids Program™ and Reinvestment Fund to support Philadelphia childcare providers who are struggling to sustain their businesses and early learning support for families through closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the month since it opened, PEFSEE has received an overwhelming response with 524 applications to date. PEFSEE has thus far awarded $3.7 million to 271 providers. Of the awardees, 87% are women-owned organizations and 71% are owned or led by people of color. The awards are expected to preserve 2,901 jobs in the sector and maintain spaces for 21,482 children in licensed early learning programs. Reinvestment Fund will announce awards on a rolling basis.

Reinvestment Fund announced $1.2 million in grant awards to 89 childcare providers, early intervention and home visiting service organizations under the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE) program. PEFSEE is a collaboration of the William Penn Foundation, Vanguard’s Strong Start for Kids Program™ and Reinvestment Fund to support Philadelphia childcare providers who are struggling to sustain their businesses and early learning support for families through closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first round of awards reflects Philadelphia’s diverse landscape of early education providers serving the needs of children and families: 46% of awardees are single-site centers; 21% are multi-site providers; 12% are home-based family providers; and 12% are group providers. Of the total awardees, 85% are women-owned organizations and 71% are owned or led by people of color. The first-round awards are expected to preserve 1,387 jobs in the sector and maintain spaces for 11,766 children in licensed early learning programs.

11.7 million people better served with targeted investments in equitable food systems

Reinvestment Fund today released a new analysis that identifies Rural Food Access Investment Areas (Investment Areas). These Investment Areas are places in rural America that do not have easy access to healthy food retail but have the market demand to support investments in new and existing place-based solutions. Reinvestment Fund has identified 1,472 Investment Areas that are home to 11.7 million people in the rural U.S.

“The sustainability and inequities of our food system have never been more glaring, particularly at this time when food stores have been deemed essential businesses and are lifelines for our communities,” said Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “Investing in a resilient and just food system is vital for our nation and that includes the small businesses and essential workers that build and sustain our rural food economy.”

The communities we serve are feeling the deep financial and social impacts of COVID-19. At Reinvestment Fund, we have been reaching out personally to our borrowers and partners and learning about the specific challenges they face. We’ve also heard from our community of investors that they want to help in a meaningful way.

Given the significant measures in the U.S. at this time to lessen the spread and impact of COVID-19, Reinvestment Fund has activated its remote work policy for all employees.

During this time, all services are available and employees are accessible through their direct lines or via email during business hours of 9 am to 5 pm EST.

The health and wellbeing of our staff, partners and the communities we serve are our priority and we continue to monitor the situation. Throughout, we continue to partner with stakeholders across the country who are working hard to bring their projects to successful fruition.

Early in 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) published their proposal for comprehensive amendments to the rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The following statement is Reinvestment Fund’s response to the proposed changes and was submitted to the OCC as part of our comments.

Our communities are feeling the financial impact of COVID-19 and at Reinvestment Fund, our goal is to help alleviate some of the immediate financial pressures and ultimately to preserve local assets.

We have been reaching out personally to our borrowers and partners to better understand challenges and how we can be helpful. We are currently supporting several small businesses and nonprofits in our portfolio to access local, state, federal and philanthropic emergency resources as they become available. In some instances, our role has been to help our borrowers navigate the application processes.

We are also working with investors and philanthropic partners to tailor responses to challenges we are seeing on the ground. This week we announced two new initiatives, outlined below, to support childcare providers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fund to sustain early learning providers, including childcare, pre-k, and home visiting programs serving children from birth to age five

William Penn Foundation, Vanguard, and Reinvestment Fund today announced a collaboration to support Philadelphia childcare providers who are struggling to sustain their businesses through closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A $5 million grant from William Penn Foundation and a $2 million grant from Vanguard’s Strong Start for Kids Program will launch the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE), which will help Philadelphia continue its important progress in ensuring access to high quality early learning.