Cooperative Fund of New England
The Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) is using HFFI financing to increase healthy food access in New England and eastern New York State through the Healthy Food/Cooperative Communities initiative, which combines financing, development services, technical assistance, and data collection and measurement to increase low-income consumers' utilization and membership in co-ops. This work led five food co-ops in the past year to start implementing new programs to better serve low-income communities. For example, HFFI financing supported the expansion of the Harvest Food Co-Op in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Note: The Cooperative Fund of New England is a CDFI headquartered in Massachusetts that is working throughout New England and eastern New York State.
Local Enterprise Assistance Fund
Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF) is using HFFI financing to support lending to food co-ops and community-owned grocery stores. LEAF is one of three CDFIs in the country with a focus on providing capital to cooperatives, which often pay wages and benefits above industry averages. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Note: Local Enterprise Assistance Fund is a CDFI headquartered in Massachusetts that works nationally.
Common Capital
Common Capital, formerly Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund, Inc., is using HFFI financing to increase access to pre-development grants for technical assistance and other soft costs. Some of these funds supported Simple Gift Farms, which sells produce at farmers' markets and is located in a USDA-defined food desert in Amherst, Massachusetts. Common Capital also financed an innovative program to deliver farm CSA shares to four low-income public housing units. By offering local farms an up-front CSA financing option, Common Capital enables farm CSAs to engage more low-income members who would otherwise be unable to pay up front for the 18-22 week produce delivery season. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CDFI-Financial Assistance Program
Note: Common Capital is a CDFI headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts that is working throughout the state of Massachusetts.
Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation
Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC) is using HFFI financing to redevelop a 35,650-square-foot building into the Bornstein & Pearl Food Production Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts. CropCircle Kitchen, Inc. will run a commercial kitchen to foster the growth of local food businesses, create employment opportunities for residents, and facilitate improved access to healthy food in the immediate neighborhood. Through a partnership with two culinary training programs and DBEDC's Re-Entry initiative, the program intends to create at least 37 new full-time jobs for low-income individuals and those who face barriers to employment. You can find more information about project development here and about DBEDC here.
Source of money: HFFI CED Program
Madison Park Development Corporation
Madison Park Development Corporation is using HFFI financing to expand an existing 8,500-square-foot Tropical Foods Supermarket into a full-sized, 30,000-square-foot supermarket in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. This market expansion has three major goals: 1) bring a desperately needed supermarket to Roxbury, a low-income neighborhood of Boston; 2) provide 46 permanent, full-time positions for the low-income residents of the neighborhood, of which 38 will be reserved for low-income local residents; and 3) act as a catalyst for future commercial development in the Dudley Square commercial center. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CED Program
United Teen Equality Center, Inc.
Founded in 1999 by youth responding to local gang violence, UTEC is now nationally recognized as a model youth development agency that works to nurture disconnected youth looking to trade violence and poverty for social and economic success. UTEC is using HFFI financing to build on its successful track record with FRESH Roots catering, which promotes healthy nutritional choices and trains young people in work, life, and culinary skills. HFFI financing allows UTEC to create a retail and catering café to increase access to healthy produce and create jobs for low-income residents. UTEC plans to create a minimum of five new food service businesses in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. UTEC expects to create 37 jobs, at least 28 of which will be filled by low-income residents, specifically providing employment opportunities for young adults with past criminal backgrounds who face obstacles finding employment in the area. You can find more information here.
Source of money: HFFI CED Program
Boston Community Capital and Reinvestment Fund
Boston Community Capital and Reinvestment Fund are partnering and using HFFI funding to support acquisition/predevelopment financing for Vicente Tropical Supermarket in Brockton, MA. The market primarily serves the immigrant community in Brockton and the surrounding area, and an estimated 70% of its customers are Cape Verdean and Haitian. The new store is located in a low-income tract (59% AMI) that is underserved by healthy food retail. The Brockton Community Health Center has agreed to develop an adult primary care/wellness clinic on the same site, adjacent to the new 32,000-square-foot Vicente Tropical Supermarket. The new store is projected to create 96 permanent jobs. 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.