USDA Partners With Reinvestment Fund to Increase Equitable Access to Healthy Foods Across Country

Deputy Secretary Torres Small joined Reinvestment Fund and the New Mexico Healthy Food Financing Fund Partnership to make the announcement and host a food access round table at Explora Science Center & Children's Museum in Albuquerque – a food retail location partnership with previous Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) grantee Three Sisters Kitchen.

Through funding made available primarily by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, Reinvestment Fund has selected 16 public-private partnerships to receive $40.3 million in grants under the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Local & Regional Healthy Food Financing Partnerships Program to expand access to nutritious and affordable foods in 20 states and Washington, D.C.

This program provides financing to local, state and regional organizations that partner together to provide financing and technical assistance to food retailers in underserved communities. Funding for this program is made possible by the 2023 expansion of HFFI, which created the HFFI Partnerships Program to bring in new partners that can address food access for even more underserved communities than before.

This announcement is part of USDA’s comprehensive set of efforts, bolstered by funding made available through the American Rescue Plan Act, to create more and better markets that benefit both producers and American consumers. HFFI is designed to support new and expanded markets for a diversity of growers while helping people access healthy foods.

The 16 partnerships being announced today represent 75 local organizations across the country. They will create or expand food financing programs and increase access to healthy food for people living in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

For example:

• The New Mexico Healthy Food Financing Fund Partnership will use funding to conduct new market studies to collect and analyze information that highlights strengths and weaknesses within the New Mexico food ecosystem. The partnership will use this data to support the creation of programs that improve the sustainability and resiliency in New Mexico’s healthy food distribution channels.
• The Appalachian FoodWorks Partnership will use funding to offer grants, loans, and technical support to help underserved communities enhance food access, supply chain resilience, and economic development through established retailers, startups, and food enterprises across West Virginia and bordering counties in Central Appalachia.
• 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 food desert communities in Atlanta. The partnership will also offer loans and grants to food retailers owned by and serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
• The Pacific Northwest Resilient Food Systems Partnership will use funding to provide planning, operations and credit services to build resilient regional food systems that improve healthy food access for underserved communities in Southeast Alaska, Washington and Oregon.