Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI)

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) is a public-private partnership administered by Reinvestment Fund, a national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on behalf of USDA Rural Development. HFFI was established by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (commonly known as the 2014 Farm Bill), and reauthorized and expanded in 2018 Farm Bill.

HFFI offers grants and technical assistance to food retail and food system enterprises that seek to improve access to healthy food in underserved areas. Grants could are available to assist projects with a variety of aspects of retail or enterprise development, renovation, or expansion. Grants are made as one-time investments of capital into a food retail or food enterprise project, with the goal of helping them to overcome cost and other barriers to entry in underserved areas across the country.

Technical Assistance (TA) will is also available to eligible organizations, and may include: support with capacity building; identifying food access needs and potential interventions; project planning; market studies; feasibility studies; business planning; financial modeling; appraisals; and community or customer engagement. 

For-profit businesses, cooperative businesses, nonprofit organizations, and state, local, and tribal governments and governmental agencies will be eligible to apply.

The program will support projects aiming to strengthen, expand, and innovate within the food retail supply chain. The program could assist a variety of organizations, business models, and capital needs of ventures that process, distribute, aggregate, market, and sell healthy, fresh, and affordable foods to underserved communities and markets. Projects must demonstrate how their proposed project will contribute to food access through the availability of staple and perishable foods for retail sale.

To be eligible for assistance, applicants must propose a project that:

1. Plans to expand or preserve the availability of staple and perishable foods in underserved areas with low and moderate-income populations; and

2. If the project involves retail sales, accepts benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) established under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 USC 2011 et. Seq.)

To be eligible for financial or technical assistance through America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative, applicants must propose a project in an underserved area. Use the interactive map on this page to determine if your project’s proposed location qualifies as underserved.

See the most recent Request For Applications for instructions on how to apply.

• RFA Info Session Webinar- Recording

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Online Grants Portal Registration and Application Guide