• Home
  • Resources, by Type

October 2017

HFFI Talking Points 2017

Overview

On May 3 & 4, 2017, nearly 150 stakeholders gathered in Washington, D.C. for the Sixth Annual National Convening on Healthy Food Access to discuss the progress, impact, and future of the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). This handout includes core messages designed to assit you when speaking about the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) to partners, the media, or congressional staffers.

Read more about the convening in this section, 2017 HFFI Convening Reflections.

October 2017

HFFI Telling Your Story 2017

Overview

On May 3 & 4, 2017, nearly 150 stakeholders gathered in Washington, D.C. for the Sixth Annual National Convening on Healthy Food Access to discuss the progress, impact, and future of the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). 

On day two, grantees of the federal HFFI program and other stakeholders travelled to Capitol Hill to share stories about healthy food access projects and efforts with Congressional Members and staff. This handout includes key tips and strategies utilized by attendees to help their elected officials learn about the critical program and its impact in their respective states and districts.

Read more about the convening in this section, 2017 HFFI Convening Reflections.

October 2017

Global Database for City and Regional Food Policies

Overview

The Global Database for City and Regional Food Policies is a resource for local governments to learn about food system policies from around the globe. The database provides copies of legislations, plans, funding allocations, or other public actions authorized or implemented by cities, municipalities, regions and sub-national governments.

October 2017

Increasing Equitable Food Access through the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network

Overview

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Healthy Neighborhood Market Network (HNMN) is at the forefront of improving the healthy food offerings of corner stores in Los Angeles’ communities of color by transforming corner markets into a convenient and healthy food retail option for residents. This case study explores how HNMN’s leadership development, technical assistance and creative partnerships can result in mutual benefits for corner store owners and the community.

September 2017

HFFI Impacts: The Nationwide Success of Healthy Food Financing Initiatives

Overview

This digital report aims to provide champions, allies and stakeholders with the background, data and resources to demonstrate the impact and success of healthy food financing efforts. Advocates will find the framework for evaluating the impacts of HFFI, case studies, as well as the accomplishments achieved by project investments and HFFI programs across the country. 

After Measure S was soundly defeated at the ballot box this past March, the prevailing view seemed to be that it represented a vote in favor of greater density, particularly more infill and transit-oriented development. Which, in some ways, it was.

September 2017

FRAC Interactive Data Maps: Poverty and SNAP by State and Congressional District

Overview

On the heels of the release of the 2016 Census American Community Survey findings, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) has launched new interactive data tools illustrate poverty rates and SNAP participation rates at the state and congressional district levels. Policymakers, advocates and others will be better able to pinpoint the extent of poverty in their communities and to understand the importance extent to which SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) is bolstering households struggling with inadequate incomes. The new maps complement previous FRAC mapping of SNAP participation in every U.S. county. 

L.A.'s Housing Crisis Is Now the Nation's Housing Crisis

Crossposted from LA Weekly

The impact of Los Angeles' postrecession housing crisis became clear in 2014, when a UCLA report found that L.A. is "the most unaffordable rental market" in the United States. Since then, L.A. has seen renters become the majority of households in the market. And earlier this year, a report marked a 23 percent rise in homelessness  countywide, a number that some experts say is directly tied to out-of-reach rents.

To kick off an awareness campaign called the Renter Week of Action this week, a number of organizations released an analysis of the city's and nation's increasing rent burdens, noting in a summary that renters from coast to coast now "face a toxic mix of rising rents and stagnant wages."

Trump Administration Eliminates Local Hire Pilot before It Can Demonstrate Results

The Trump Administration recently stripped communities of a crucial tool for job creation – hiring local workers. In August, the US Department of Transportation announced it would discontinue a pilot program allowing for geographic-based hiring preferences in administering federal awards, also known as local hiring. This represents a premature halting of a program that was being utilized on 14 projects in more than 10 states. The pilot program has not been in existence and functioning long enough to collect and analyze data and information to determine its impact. 

By repealing the program at US DOT, the Administration is breaking its promise to increase employment, especially for disproportionately under and unemployed communities that stood to gain from the program. For example, one of the projects in located in Wise County, VA: a region which could be called “Trump country”. The population is 92 percent White, and Trump won nearly 4 out of 5 votes in the county in the 2016 election. Wise County is also struggling economically; as of June 2017, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent – nearly double the statewide rate of 3.7 percent. The poverty rate is 22.7 percent more than twice the statewide rate of 11.2 percent.  Across the entire state there are 16,000 unemployed veterans. The state was working to leverage a $6.4 million dollar road expansion project (which included bicycle paths and sidewalks) to address unemployment and poverty. The county’s approved project they required that 75 percent of new hires should be either local residents or veterans living anywhere in the state of Virginia. 

Local hire policies bring good jobs to economically disadvantaged communities and ensure equitable development. Local hire programs also yield shared benefits.  Businesses receive financial incentives when they hire veterans or workers from the local community and they also find a steady supply of reliable workers. Job seekers can more easily travel to job sites located within their community.

Civic leaders and advocates across the country that are trying to move a jobs agenda for infrastructure have voiced major opposition for this recent move. Members of the federal Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity (ACTE) sent a letter to Secretary Chao urging her to re-instate the local hiring program. ACTE was established by the US DOT in 2016 to provide the Secretary with “independent advice and recommendations about comprehensive, interdisciplinary issues related to transportation equity.” PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell sits on this committee,  serving a two-year term of service alongside 11 individuals involved in transportation planning, design, research, policy, and advocacy, including Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, DreamCorps CEO Van Jones and Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians, Jacqueline Pata.

If you would more information about how to join with others to voice your opposition to this move by the administration, please CONTACT US at Transportation Equity Caucus website.

JOIN US in Chicago April 11 – 13, for EquitySummit 2018, as we explore the complexity and urgency of building a multiracial coalition at this pivotal moment for our nation.

 

August 2017

HFFI Funding at CDFI Fund

Overview

This short fact sheet provides an overview of Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) funding through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Program. Included is information about the program background, project eligibility, application instructions, as well as examples of projects funded through HFFI efforts at CDFI Fund. 

Pages