This short fact sheet provides an overview of Community Economic Development (CED) funding through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) to support healthy food access initiatives, including: background, project eligibility, application instructions, as well as examples of projects funded through HFFI efforts at HHS.
FoodLab Detroit is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality by designing, building, and maintaintaining systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters.
This photo essay documents FoodLab's Annual Network Gathering, where invited designers, policy experts, food justice activists, FoodLab member businesses and community leaders worked to address the problem of economic inequality and the rise of the working poor in Detroit by ensuring that good food and good jobs are accessible to all people.
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Last week, I had the pleasure of joining the U.S. Conference of Mayors summer meeting in New Orleans to discuss the importance of equity — just and fair inclusion — to their cities’ future. This was also the first meeting of the conference since their president, Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, ordered the city’s Confederate statues removed. In an earlier speech about this decision, Mayor Landrieu explained, “Centuries old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place.” The conference took a moment to applaud his bold actions, which are all the more courageous given the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, surrounding that city’s plan to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. Given today’s political climate, cities — with their economic power, diversity, and innovation — must continue to take bold actions, address old wounds, and lead our nation toward inclusive prosperity. This requires transforming policies and systems that have long perpetuated racial inequities.
While millennials, as well as companies and investment capital, are flocking to cities, many vulnerable communities who stuck with cities through their long decline are disconnected from these emerging opportunities and are at risk of being further left behind or displaced altogether. As I explained at the conference, local leaders must think intentionally about racial equity and ensure that low-income people and people of color are able to participate in, and benefit from, decisions that impact their communities.
We call this pathway for achieving healthy, vibrant, prosperous communities “equitable development.” Specifically, I shared four principles to guide equitable development:
For example, the City and County of San Francisco entered into a historic community benefits agreement with Lennar (the second-largest national housing developer) around a major development in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. As a result, Lennar will ensure that 32 percent of housing units are affordable; provide housing preference to existing residents; and provide over $8.5 million in job training funds. Such commitments would not be possible without thinking about enduring inequalities and putting people at the center of development plans.
Reducing inequality and creating opportunities for all to participate in building a stronger economy is not just the right thing to do — it is urgent and fundamental to the economic future of cities, regions, and the nation. Already, more than half of new births in the U.S. are children of color. By the end of this decade, the majority of children under 18 will be of color. By 2030, the majority of young workers under 25 will be of color. It is evident that what happens to people of color will determine the fate of the nation.
As I shared this message with the mayors present, I also understood that they have a responsibility to all their residents. But equity is not a zero-sum game. Intentional investments in the most vulnerable communities have benefits that cascade out, improving the lives of all struggling people as well as regional economies and the nation as a whole. I call this the “curb-cut effect”, after the ramp-like dips on sidewalk corners. Championed by disability rights activists in the 1970s, these investments not only enabled people in wheelchairs to cross the street, but have helped everyone from parents wheeling strollers to workers pushing carts to travelers rolling suitcases. In fact, studies show that curb cuts have improved public safety as they have encouraged pedestrians to cross safely at intersections.
The strategies may be unique in each city, but the struggle for equity is the same across the United States. Fortunately, mayors understand that the work they do is more important than ever, particularly when it comes to addressing racial inequality. Reflecting on the meeting, I am reminded of another quote from Mayor Landrieu’s speech: “If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain.” Mayors must grapple with inequities in their communities, embrace the changing faces of their cities and towns, and maximize equitable development to foster communities of opportunity for all.
Together, we can build a nation in which no one, no group, and no geographic region is left behind.
FoodLab Detroit is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality by designing, building, and maintaintaining systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters.
In partnership with the Work Department, a women-led social innovation design firm, the FoodLab Detroit Strategy Council members participated in a series of three interactive working sessions over the course of six weeks to define the core principles that enable the creation of Good Food and Good Jobs. This photo essay documents this engaging process.
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FoodLab Detroit is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality by designing, building, and maintaintaining systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters.
Throughout the second of three co-labs, the FoodLab Detroit Strategy Council members worked to further refine what it means to be a provider of good food and good jobs. This photo essay captures this process, where members worked to edit those definitions to ensure that those definitions articulated the core values of FoodLab Detroit, and painted a clear picture of the vibrant, local food economy that we envision.
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FoodLab Detroit is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality by designing, building, and maintaintaining systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters.
Throughout the first two collaborative work sessions, FoodLab Detroit's community of good food entrepreneurs, with the help of The Work Department, was able to develop a set of guiding principles and expectations for food businesses who wish to contribute to the creation of good food and good jobs. This photo essay captures this process, including the final co-lab whereby members reviewed these principles and ensured that this tool truly reflected their community's values prior to publication.
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Harvesting Opportunity: The Power of Regional Food System Investments to Transform Communities, published as a partnership between the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's agencies of Rural Development and the Agricultural Marketing Service focuses on regional food systems as a means for enhancing economic opportunity. This resource offers a compilation of research, essays and reports that explores the potential for the growing popularity of locally sourced food to be harnessed to boost economic opportunities for rural and urban communities.
Benefits Data Trust (BDT) set out with a team of highly skilled researchers to determine what impact the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) had on healthcare utilization and costs. The results of this compelling research are available in this policy brief.
The study is the first to examine the association between SNAP and both hospital and nursing home utilization. Researchers studied the entire population of 69,000 Maryland seniors on Medicaid and Medicare (dual eligibles). Individual-level medical claims data were cross-matched against SNAP enrollment data, and used to analyze the impact of SNAP on healthcare utilization and costs.
Because for far too long, tribal communities have been separated from their lands and disconnected from traditional foods – putting their tribal culture and health in peril. A movement is happening to rewrite this history of inequity. Tribal communities are returning to traditional practices of the past to remedy problems of the present.
The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative profiles 40 tribal-led projects that are shaking up current food systems. These are just a snapshot of the exciting efforts improving the health of communities across Indian Country.
The diversity of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region is a tremendous economic asset – if people of color are fully included as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Equitable growth is the path to sustained economic prosperity. In fact, closing racial gaps in income would boost the regional economy by more than $200 billion. The 2017 Nine-County Bay Area Equity Profile complements an initial five-county profile released two years ago and recently updated. Read the profile.