Rural grocery stores anchor a community by supplying fresh foods and staples; creating local jobs; attracting complementary businesses; and increasing the tax base. Today they are under siege because of competition with “big box” stores for customers; high energy costs, the inability to buy products in small quantities; elderly owners with no succession plans, and low population density. This webinar explores the unique challenges that rural grocers face and discuss innovative solutions to improving access to healthy foods in rural America.

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program incentivizes private investment in low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax return in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial institutions called Community Development Entities (CDEs). The NMTC program has a proven track record in expanding access to healthy foods by encouraging private sector investment in underserved communities. This webinar serves as an introduction to a complex financing tool and explores some examples of how NMTCs are being used to finance a variety of projects designed to improve access to healthy foods.

New research in a joint report by PolicyLink and The Food Trust, Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters: A Review of the Research, underscores healthy food access as the foundation necessary for reaping the positive benefits associated with healthy food. The research reveals that improving healthy food access in low-income communities and communities of color continues to be an urgent need with nearly 30 million people living in low-income areas with limited access to supermarkets. The webinar features report authors along with a local government official. Speakers discuss how findings from the new report can be used to expand healthy food access in communities across the country.

The recent passage of the 2014 farm bill has spurred new discussion and attention to food and agriculture policy. In particular, the media has focused considerable attention on the issue of healthy food access, its relationship to obesity, and policies improving access to healthy, fresh food. Research demonstrates that without access to healthy food, a nutritious diet is out of reach. The following document responds to the recent media attention to the newly published Health Affairs article: “New Neighborhood Grocery Store Increased Awareness of Food Access But Did Not Alter Dietary Habits or Obesity,” and provides key responses to the media framing of the study and the policy implications.

Grocery stores and food co-ops can improve health outcomes, increase employment opportunities, spur economic development, and create access to opportunity for residents of low-income communities and communities of color. Integrating equity into your economic plan will help grow your grocery store or food co-op. This resource includes some strategies to increase store profits by buildinga sustainable community of opportunity where everyone can participate and prosper.

Food hubs have the potential to create a more equitable food system that values quality jobs, healthy food access, local economic growth, small business development, and sustainable agriculture. Food hubs designed with these equity considerations can provide opportunities for growers and producers, aggregators and distributors, and the consumer. This resource outlines strategies for developing profitable, equitable food hubs that create more just, fair, and inclusive food systems and local economies.

Children consume a significant portion of their daily calories at school; when schools have healthy foods and beverages in cafeterias and vending machines, children eat better. But what if families don’t have access to healthy food when their children come home from school?

Without access to healthy foods, a nutritious diet and good health are out of reach. And access to healthy food brings a triple bottom-line benefit to communities – a revitalized economy, new jobs, and better health. These benefits also advance equity, the fair and just inclusion of all residents in communities.

Join co-sponsors MomsRising and PolicyLink for a healthy food access portal webinar that will draw connections between efforts to bring healthy food to schools and the movement for healthy food access in communities across the country. Speakers will share their successes and strategies for overcoming challenges in their work and provide recommendations to the broader community of advocates and practitioners.

Featured Speakers:
•    Allison Hagey, Associate Director, PolicyLink (moderator)
•    Monifa Bandele, Senior Campaign Director, MomsRising
•    Sheilah Davidson, Policy Program Manager, School Food Focus
•    Dara Cooper, Director, New York Food and Fitness Partnership

Across the country healthy food financing initiatives and programs are helping to increase access to nutritious foods for millions of Americans. Terms such as "food desert" and "underserved" have become commonplace, yet clear definitions can be elusive and vary by state and program. Other challenges include building a robust pipeline of applicants and marketing the program effectively, as well as attracting additional investment to support projects. This webinar discusses how these initiatives are being administered by community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and food access organizations on the local and state level. Audience members learn how program administrators determine the eligibility of projects in areas of need, employ marketing and outreach strategies to attract grocery applicants, and attract additional  investments to healthy food financing programs. Speakers share best practices and case studies from the field. Click here to playthe recording.