Healthy Food Business Development

In healthy communities, residents have access to all the resources they need to thrive — including fresh, healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food — regardless of race or income. Yet, in too many low-income communities and communities of color, the only places to buy food are fast food restaurants and convenience stores that sell unhealthy, sugary, processed foods.

In other cases, there are no nearby food vendors of any kind. Not surprisingly, residents living in underserved neighborhoods and communities without access to high-quality fresh food face higher risks of obesity, diabetes, and other poor health outcomes. However, local leaders and advocates across the country are working on expanding access to healthy, fresh, affordable food for people of color and low-income neighborhoods by supporting food businesses across the entire food system – from grocery stores, food cooperatives, and farmers’ markets, to food hubs, distribution networks, and food recovery enterprises.

These efforts not only make it easier for people to access healthy food but also support local and regional economic development. Some healthy food business policies incentivize local hiring, bringing needed job opportunities for residents. The development of a grocery store typically creates between 100 and 200 permanent jobs in addition to providing temporary construction jobs. These stores also generate increased foot traffic that attracts complementary retailers like pharmacies and restaurants to the neighborhood, generating more jobs and local sales tax revenue. Other healthy food business models create fewer jobs but provide other benefits, such as the opportunity for food cooperative workers to gain employee ownership. In addition to creating or retaining jobs, new food retailers support the local economy when they purchase goods and services from other local businesses, including producers and distributors.

Visit the Healthy Food Access Portal for more resources on healthy food business development.

• Stakeholders can come together to identify the best healthy food options for a community and identify barriers and ways to overcome them. Local leaders working to increase healthy food access options must address various policy and organizational considerations.
   

• Organizing broad and diverse coalitions: Children’s advocates, food security advocates, public health and economic development professionals, government officials, supermarket industry representatives, and community-based groups are often key participants in working with local communities to identify healthy food needs and opportunities.
   

• Planning a community approach: City leaders and advocates should consider starting with a broad coalition focused on food retail or another component of the food system and then moving to a smaller, more targeted task force. Leaders can also incorporate healthy food business development into existing planning processes, public health assessments, and other community-engagement conversations.
   
• Understanding local community needs, priorities, and opportunities: Every community has unique assets, challenges, and goals. Some communities have found it helpful to conduct community food assessments (CFAs) or other participatory research that examines a community’s access to healthy food. Leakage studies can help advocates determine the unmet food retail needs of a given neighborhood – and the retail dollars residents are spending outside of their community.
   
• Determining the right solutions: Communities should consider and select a range of solutions to support healthy food access efforts. Key strategies might include financing, zoning incentives, land use strategies, and streamlined permitting processes. The Healthy Food Access Portal provides many helpful resources on policy solutions, and Food Policy Networks provides examples of model ordinances and legislation.
   
• Evaluating progress: Policymakers and other local leaders should identify specific goals and prioritize their efforts accordingly, educating community members about new initiatives and establishing data and tracking systems to evaluate the effectiveness of their initiatives.

A successful joint use agreement brings together community stakeholders from across the spectrum to plan and participate in the agreement, enhance cost-effectiveness, and expand access for underserved communities by maximizing the utility of spaces. Cities seeking to implement joint use agreements should consider a range of practical and logistical questions.

• Focus on communities with the greatest need: City efforts should focus on joint use agreements that will benefit neighborhoods where facilities are absent or inadequate, prioritizing communities of color and other groups who face the greatest barriers to access.
   
• Form of agreement: Joint use plans can be formal, legal agreements or informal arrangements. Formal agreements may be preferable as they provide clear expectations and protections for all parties involved.
   
• Liability: In many instances, the existing liability insurance in effect for a given public or private institution is adequate to cover liability that could arise during shared use. Other liability concerns related to vandalism, wear and tear, and staffing should be addressed in joint use agreements.
   
• Maintenance and operations: Joint use partners should agree on shared costs and responsibilities for maintaining, cleaning, and repairing facilities.
   
• Potential regulatory barriers: Zoning restrictions or agency policies could impede the adoption of joint use agreements and may need to be revised.
   
• Funding: In the case of expanding the use of existing facilities, joint use does present a significant expense. New joint use developments can distribute costs across a range of partners, and philanthropy can also provide funding to support joint use efforts.
   
• Public safety: Community residents may avoid activities because of traffic- and crime-related safety concerns. Joint use agreements that include provisions for upgrading facilities (for example, with adequate outdoor lighting) can increase public safety by promoting constructive activity and reducing vandalism.

Local healthy food financing initiatives have been developed in many places, along with a few successful healthy food retail initiatives that were not focused on financing.

• In New Orleans, city officials partnered with Hope Enterprise Corporation and The Food Trust to launch the New Orleans Fresh Food Retailers Initiative. The program was seeded with $7 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, which leveraged additional financing. The initiative has supported three local projects to date, including a Black-owned grocery store that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and needed investment to reopen. The store now provides 65 local jobs, fresh food in a former food desert, and a bank branch.
   
• In New York City, the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spearheaded the NYC Green Cart initiative. With a long waiting list of entrepreneurs who wanted to operate food carts, the city decided to offer a streamlined process for those vendors willing to operate carts selling fresh fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food. Because of the initiative, over 500 Green Carts operate throughout all five boroughs in neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food. Approximately 90 vendors are now equipped with Electronic Benefit Terminal (EBT) machines that accept food stamps.