Fayette County Community Action Agency, Inc.
Fayette County Community Action Agency, Inc. is using HFFI financing to support the development of the Republic Food Enterprise Center (RFEC), a food hub located in Republic, Pennsylvania, and serving southwestern Pennsylvania. In addition to creating jobs in the food processing sector, the RFEC will coordinate with leading economic development organizations to support food-based initiatives and work to strengthen the connections between local growers, area residents, and leading commercial partners in the greater southwestern Pennsylvania region. This project intends to create up to 40 new, full-time jobs, of which 35 will be filled by low-income Fayette County residents. As part of the project, the RFEC also aims to expand six farmers markets in the region as part of this project. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CED Program
Low Income Investment Fund
Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is using HFFI funding to provide financing and technical assistance to food markets located in, or planning to locate in, low- to-moderate-income communities that lack access to affordable, healthy food. LIIF has funded projects in Louisiana, New York, and Pennsylvania. Some HFFI financing supported The Plaza at Chelten project, a 50,000-square-foot retail and healthy food center in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Note: LIIF is a CDFI headquartered in California, but LIIF is also working in Louisiana, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Reinvestment Fund and Nonprofit Finance Fund
Fare & Square, a 16,000-square-foot supermarket, is the culmination of numerous attempts to attract a full-service grocery store to Chester, Pennsylvania. The store is located in an area where over 70 percent of residents live in a food desert according to data from the USDA Economic Research Service. Reinvestment Fund and Nonprofit Finance Fund partnered to help finance Fare & Square, which is the nation’s first grocery store run by a food bank. The opening of Fare & Square created 69 full- and part-time jobs, which are filled primarily by Chester community residents. Fare & Square opened in September 2013. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Note: Reinvestment Fund is a CDFI headquartered in Pennsylvania that finances projects in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Nonprofit Finance Fund is a CDFI headquartered in New York that used HFFI financing in Pennsylvania.
The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation
The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation (TEC-CDC) used HFFI financing to support the Center for Culinary Enterprises (CCE) in West Philadelphia. The CCE is a $6-million, 13,000-square-foot, LEED-certified food business accelerator that serves as a hub of community health and nutrition resources. The project will create a total of 112 jobs over a three-year period. TEC-CDC is also helping develop the Philadelphia Restaurant Incubator to allow low-income entrepreneurs and mobile food truck operators to pilot and test their businesses in West Philadelphia. The Philly Restaurant Incubator will create 51 new jobs and result in the launch of at least seven new businesses. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Hill House Economic Development Corporation
Hill House Economic Development Corporation used HFFI financing to support the completion of a 36,000-square-foot, full-service supermarket in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The supermarket will create 44 permanent, full-time positions and 56 part-time jobs in a high-unemployment neighborhood that has lacked a grocery store for more than 25 years. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CED Program