Reinvestment Fund and USDA invest $3 million to improve access to healthy food across Atlanta

The Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative among 16 grantees across the country

In April 2024, the Reinvestment Fund awarded $40,336,270 in grant funding for the Local and Regional Healthy Food Financing Partnerships Program (HFFI Partnerships Program) to support food financing programs in rural, urban, and tribal communities in 20 states and Washington, D.C.

Among the winners of the HFFI Partnerships Program is the Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative, which includes partners Invest Atlanta and Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE). Invest Atlanta, the city’s official economic development authority, and ACE, an Atlanta-based nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), have a proven track record of delivering affordable financing to underserved areas. They are joining forces through the HFFI Partnership Program to continue this vital work.

Mayor Andre Dickens unveiled the investment, highlighting Atlanta’s inclusion as one of 16 public-private partnerships benefiting from the new program. The $2.97 million investment will increase the resilience of the food supply chain, improve access to nutritious food, boost employment and revitalize low-income neighborhoods in Atlanta.

“Atlanta’s selection for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative reinforces our ongoing commitment to reaching underserved communities and addressing the pressing issue of food access and food insecurity,” Mayor Andre Dickens said in a press release issued by his office. “We are grateful to the USDA for this investment that will enable us to expand access to healthy food, spur economic development, and create a more vibrant and resilient city for all residents.”

Atlanta’s Challenging Food Landscape

Reinvestment Fund first opened its Atlanta office in 2018. Through several initiatives, CDFI has successfully worked with local partners to finance projects that improve access to essential services, including affordable housing, healthcare, and education.

Atlanta is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, creating a wide range of opportunities to support communities across a continuum of situations. Reinvestment Fund’s recently released Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis identifies pockets across the country where residents experience unequal access to grocery stores. In the Atlanta region, the number of people living with limited access to grocery stores has grown to nearly 650,000 people, an increase of more than 20% from 2010 to 2020.

According to Dr. Michael Norton, Reinvestment Fund’s Chief Policy Analyst, “The diversity of underserved areas in fast-growing regions like Atlanta requires a differentiated approach to meeting the needs of people living in different neighborhoods across the region. For example, on the outer edges of the region, grocery retailing lags behind residential development. These are areas with sufficient population and demand to support new full-service grocery stores as these new developments expand and mature. However, in more developed parts of the region, there are increasingly smaller pockets of underserved areas. These are areas with insufficient population to support a full-service grocery store, but where people have inadequate and unequal access to grocery stores.”

Meeting these diverse needs requires creative thinking and a diverse approach to ensure that residents of the region have equal access to food.

About the Public-Private Partnership

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 provide technical assistance to food retailers who want to invest in Atlanta’s food-impaired communities. The public-private partnership will specifically target businesses that want to improve food access and are committed to staying, expanding, or entering underserved areas where there is no access to healthy, fresh food.

ACE will work with Invest Atlanta to develop and implement specific loan products for food businesses and explore grant options for food businesses. ACE expects to implement at least $1,000,000 in loan capital, enabling strong and healthy growth for those businesses and the communities they serve.

Dr. Eloisa Klementich, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta, said, “Programs like HFFI are vital to our communities because 98 percent of uninvested neighborhoods in Atlanta are census tracts that lack access to healthy food. HFFI funding expands our ongoing efforts to address food access challenges and help food vendors, including those owned and people of color, who want to invest in our communities.”

Building a fairer food system

Since 2004, Reinvestment Fund has pioneered a comprehensive approach to strengthening food systems to increase access to healthy food and economic opportunities in the food sector for underserved communities. Through a range of programs, we provide research tools, grants, loans, and technical assistance resources to support community-based solutions. HFFI is one of several initiatives led by Reinvestment Fund.

As National Fund Manager for HFFI, Reinvestment Fund is responsible for mobilizing private capital, establishing financing and technical assistance programs, and channeling capital to fund eligible projects and partnerships. The HFFI Partnerships Program investments will provide critical resources to local public-private partners that will directly reduce barriers and increase access to a just, resilient food system that benefits thousands of families. The investment, which represents 75 local organizations across the country, is expected to facilitate more than 750 loans and grants over the next five years, support more than 1,400 food retail and supply chain projects, and sustain more than 2,500 jobs.

Olivia Chatman, Reinvestment Fund’s Atlanta-based Program Manager, expressed her excitement about the public-private partnership initiative in Atlanta, stating, “This latest investment builds on Reinvestment Fund’s ongoing commitment to creating vibrant, equitable, and resilient communities across Atlanta. By leveraging these resources, the Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative is poised to make significant strides in increasing access to healthy food and building a more resilient and equitable food system for all Atlantans.”

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