Healthy food marketing efforts have integrated approaches used by the grocery industry with academic research to create promising and feasible practices that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Hear from experts about how these efforts, commonly referred to as in-store marketing strategies, are changing consumer behavior in grocery stores and supermarkets.

This webinar features the latest evidence from the field, and explore how new research is changing how the public purchases nutritious food. Healthy food marketing efforts are generating healthy outcomes for retailers and for consumers.

Rural grocery stores anchor a community by supplying fresh foods and staples; creating local jobs; attracting complementary businesses; and increasing the tax base. Today they are under siege because of competition with “big box” stores for customers; high energy costs, the inability to buy products in small quantities; elderly owners with no succession plans, and low population density. This webinar explores the unique challenges that rural grocers face and discuss innovative solutions to improving access to healthy foods in rural America.

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program incentivizes private investment in low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax return in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial institutions called Community Development Entities (CDEs). The NMTC program has a proven track record in expanding access to healthy foods by encouraging private sector investment in underserved communities. This webinar serves as an introduction to a complex financing tool and explores some examples of how NMTCs are being used to finance a variety of projects designed to improve access to healthy foods.

New research in a joint report by PolicyLink and The Food Trust, Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters: A Review of the Research, underscores healthy food access as the foundation necessary for reaping the positive benefits associated with healthy food. The research reveals that improving healthy food access in low-income communities and communities of color continues to be an urgent need with nearly 30 million people living in low-income areas with limited access to supermarkets. The webinar features report authors along with a local government official. Speakers discuss how findings from the new report can be used to expand healthy food access in communities across the country.

Children consume a significant portion of their daily calories at school; when schools have healthy foods and beverages in cafeterias and vending machines, children eat better. But what if families don’t have access to healthy food when their children come home from school?

Without access to healthy foods, a nutritious diet and good health are out of reach. And access to healthy food brings a triple bottom-line benefit to communities – a revitalized economy, new jobs, and better health. These benefits also advance equity, the fair and just inclusion of all residents in communities.

Join co-sponsors MomsRising and PolicyLink for a healthy food access portal webinar that will draw connections between efforts to bring healthy food to schools and the movement for healthy food access in communities across the country. Speakers will share their successes and strategies for overcoming challenges in their work and provide recommendations to the broader community of advocates and practitioners.

Featured Speakers:
•    Allison Hagey, Associate Director, PolicyLink (moderator)
•    Monifa Bandele, Senior Campaign Director, MomsRising
•    Sheilah Davidson, Policy Program Manager, School Food Focus
•    Dara Cooper, Director, New York Food and Fitness Partnership

Across the country healthy food financing initiatives and programs are helping to increase access to nutritious foods for millions of Americans. Terms such as "food desert" and "underserved" have become commonplace, yet clear definitions can be elusive and vary by state and program. Other challenges include building a robust pipeline of applicants and marketing the program effectively, as well as attracting additional investment to support projects. This webinar discusses how these initiatives are being administered by community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and food access organizations on the local and state level. Audience members learn how program administrators determine the eligibility of projects in areas of need, employ marketing and outreach strategies to attract grocery applicants, and attract additional  investments to healthy food financing programs. Speakers share best practices and case studies from the field. Click here to playthe recording.

Across the country local stakeholders are adopting methods and strategies to improve access to healthy foods by advocating for policy change. This webinar uses The Food Trust’s recently published Healthy Food Financing Handbook: From Advocacy to Implementation to discuss how these efforts have led to the creation of healthy food financing initiatives at the city, state and federal level. This webinar offers a roadmap for how to successfully advocate for initiatives that improve access to healthy food through the development of healthy food retail. Additionally, the webinar provides an overview of how healthy food financing initiatives are administered by government agencies, community development financial institutions, and food access organizations. 

This webinar provides an overview of the “Find Money” section of the Healthy Food Retail Portal and provide examples of specific federal, state and local resources that can be tapped to create or expand healthy food retail opportunities in underserved communities.

Officials in cities across the nation are launching their own healthy food policy initiatives designed to bring healthier food options into their communities. Baltimore offers an important example of a city that has successfully implemented an inter-governmental initiative to increase access to healthy and affordable foods in underserved neighborhoods. This webinar offers an in-depth exploration of Baltimore’s healthy food retail programs and accomplishments including its virtual supermarket program, the financing of two recent healthy food markets, and a just released study mapping food quality in Baltimore food markets.

Across the country talented grocers have opened successful stores in once undeserved communities to increase access to healthy food. More opportunities exist nationwide for similar projects that are profitable, sustainable and contribute to the health and economic well-being of neighborhoods. This training reviews the obstacles to grocery retail development in underserved communities and the strategies that grocers can utilize to overcome these challenges. It also highlights financial resources and tools available to grocers building or expanding stores in these communities.  Experts from the supermarket industry discuss lessons learned from the field and the innovative business models that have been adopted by grocers to improve healthy food access.