PHILADELPHIA – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, along with First Lady Michelle Obama, released details last week of a $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), which will bring food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities in the United States. The initiative is a partnership between the Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.
The HHFI will attempt to expand access to healthful foods, including developing and equipping stores selling healthy food in communities that lack those options. Those communities are frequently called “food deserts” and are found in economically distressed areas.
The administration’s goal is to eliminate food deserts across America within seven years. During the first year of funding, the administration will begin expanding healthy food options in up to one-fifth of the nation’s food deserts while creating thousands of jobs in urban and rural communities.
The USDA is helping community leaders identify food deserts with its Food Environment Atlas, an online tool that identifies counties where more than 40 percent of the residents are low income and live more than one mile from a grocery store.
“Our effort to improve access to healthy and affordable food is a critically important step toward First Lady Michelle Obama’s goal to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation,” said Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. “The Healthy Food Financing Initiative will enhance access to healthy and affordable choices in struggling urban and rural communities, create jobs and economic development, and establish market opportunities for farmers and ranchers.”
“It’s been a tough year for America, but for our middle class and distressed communities it’s been a tough decade,” said Secretary Geithner. “We’re here to make sure that in America, where a child grows up doesn’t determine whether they have access to a better — healthier — future. By introducing powerful incentives for private investors to take a chance on projects — like a new, healthier grocery store — we can make that difference for America’s children, while creating new jobs and services in their communities.”
The initiative was included in the President’s 2011 budget, and will make available federal tax credits, below-market rate loans, loan guarantees, and grants to attract capital that could double the total investment. Federal funds will support projects such as grocery store expansion and placing refrigerated units stocked with fresh produce in convenience stores.
NACS is working to educate the Obama Administration and Congress to support this initiative and to highlight the importance of industry input. It is critical to debunk the stereotype of the convenience store industry as being unhealthy and to convey the opportunities the industry can provide because of their location and reputation for fast service.