News

41 organizations receive support as Fund responds to community needs

Reinvestment Fund today announced $700,425 in emergency meal grant awards under the New Jersey Child Nutrition Fund (NJCNF) program to 41 organizations that are helping to make sure children and families get healthy food to eat at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted normal channels.

The program targeted participants in the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) who have been working to ensure the continuity of meal services through the pandemic-related disruptions.

Reinvestment Fund received a $60 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation award as part of the 2019 round of the NMTC Program awards announced yesterday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. Reinvestment Fund is among 76 awardees who received a total of $3.5 billion in awards this round.

Reinvestment Fund, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Children and Families, Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), and United Way are conducting a city-wide survey to understand childcare needs as people head back to work and school. Parents and guardians can participate on the online survey anonymously to share their needs and concerns around care for children ages 0 to 5 in their household.

All families who use or plan to use childcare in Philadelphia are encouraged to take the survey, which is accessible at www.reinvestment.com/phlchildcarereopensurvey. The survey will be open for the next two weeks and is available in eight languages. In addition to English, families can access the survey in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Khmer, Russian, Arabic and French.

Reinvestment Fund today announced the launch of the Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities (BHEC) initiative in New Jersey. BHEC aims to address the barriers to better health through changes to the built environment and community investment system. The initiative will work with four cities selected through an application process, to advance community development priorities and further their plans for an equitable recovery from the current health and economic crisis. BHEC was created with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“From safe housing to access to healthcare, the COVID-19 crisis has amplified the challenges that communities face when it comes to health and well-being,” said Amanda High, Chief of Strategic Initiatives at Reinvestment Fund. “With access to resources and a peer learning exchange through BHEC, selected cities will receive a variety of supports to work with local communities to spur equitable recovery through development.”

Pain, frustration, disbelief, anxiety, exhaustion, fear, anger—each of us has likely experienced some of these emotions and then some as we have witnessed the events unfolding across our country. Those of us who work for social justice have believed we were rolling the boulder up the mountain, only to wake up and find so little discernible forward progress. We despair, we repair, then it happens again.

We mourn for Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and the countless others that came before them. We are outraged by the violent response to peaceful protesters in our cities. As American myths are ripped away the darker reality of long-standing racial oppression, disregard for black lives, and the well documented consequences of militarizing police forces are revealed for all to see.

For too long, we have seen the long shadow of our nation’s racist legacies perpetuate an unequal America. We see it every day in our work to counter the effects of redlining, segregation and discrimination.

At Reinvestment Fund, we know that we must do more. It’s not enough to call out the systemic racism evident in policing or healthcare or politics. It’s not enough to lament the injustice.

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.”