Healthy Food Financing Initiative

America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) is a public-private partnership administered by Reinvestment Fund, a national mission-driven community development financial institution, on behalf of USDA Rural Development. HFFI was established by the 2014 Farm Bill and reauthorized in 2018.

HFFI provides financial and technical assistance, either directly or through other partners and intermediaries, to eligible fresh, healthy food retailers and food retail supply chain enterprises to overcome the higher costs and initial barriers to entry in underserved areas.

To date, HFFI has awarded over $25 million in funding directly to 162 food retail and food retail supply chain projects through the HFFI Targeted Small Grants Program. These projects have been located in 48 states, in addition to Washington DC and Puerto Rico. In 2024, an additional $40 million was awarded in grants to 16 public-private partnerships through the HFFI Local and Regional Healthy Food Financing Partnerships Program to support the creation of a new or expansion of an existing Food Financing Program. These Food Financing Programs will serve 20 states and involve 75 partners. To learn more about the history and impact of America’s HFFI.

Reinvestment Fund is now accepting Funding Inquiry Form submissions for the 2024-2025 HFFI FARE Fund. 

• USDA and Reinvestment Fund Launch New Program to Increase Access to Healthy Foods in Underserved Communities
  • At the National Rural Grocer’s Summit today, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA and Reinvestment Fund are launching a new program under the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) to increase access to healthy foods in communities underserved by grocery stores. Funding for the new Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund (FARE Fund) is made possible by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act. Read the full news release.

The HFFI Program provides funding to eligible organizations that are working to plan or develop a food retail outlet or food supply chain business model that will improve access to staple and perishable foods in underserved areas through SNAP eligible food retailers. Eligible underserved areas include:

• USDA’s 2019 USDA Low Income Low Access census tracts
• Census tracts with median family incomes less than or equal to 120 percent of area median family income that are adjacent to USDA’s 2019 LILA census tracts
• Geographic Areas that meet the criteria as having low access to supermarkets or grocery stores through a methodology that has been adopted for use by another government or philanthropic healthy food initiative or demonstrates other criteria describing low access to supermarkets or grocery stores for an underserved community.

Additional info on eligibility, including an eligibility map.

• Building a Cooperative Food Market in North Flint, Michigan

The 2014 Flint Water Crisis, compounded by the closure of two major grocery stores by 2015, left North Flint residents exposed to dangerous levels of lead and without access to affordable, fresh food.

• Reinvestment Fund’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative is Expanding Food Access in the Southeast

When the small “farmers market” style store that served the Oxford, Mississippi community for over 30 years closed in 2016, the neighborhood was left with limited access to fresh foods. Chicory Market, a full-service community grocery store, took over the space in 2017.

• A New Food Retailer, People’s Harvest Community Grocery Store, to Expand Healthy Food Access in North County

Erica Williams founded A Red Circle, a North St. Louis County, Missouri-based nonprofit, in 2017. A Red Circle promotes community betterment in North County through a racial equity lens. In 2022, the organization was awarded a Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) grant to support the development of its first grocery store project—a community-owned grocery store named People’s Harvest, which will include access to affordable groceries, cold storage space for Black farmers, a community learning space, and more.

• USDA Partners With Reinvestment Fund to Invest $22.6 Million to Increase Equitable Access to Healthy Foods Across Country
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development partnered with Reinvestment Fund to invest $22.6 million to improve access to healthy foods in underserved communities across the country. The announcement includes investments that will support 134 projects in rural, urban and Tribal communities in 46 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. Read the full news release.

• HFFI 2024-2025 FARE Fund Fact Sheet