Michigan residents have greater access to healthy fruits and vegetables, thanks $380,000 in contributions from Michigan Good Food Fund’s Catalytic Investment Awards.
The fund is helping to support the type of necessary improvements that typically prevent smaller, independent grocers from carrying fresh fruits and vegetables.
DETROIT
Two Detroit-based organizations were awarded with funds that will support produce distribution programs and expansion of a smaller, Northwest neighborhood farmers market, which is popular in the community.
The grants, in the amount of $75,000 each were issued to the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp., in partnership with FoodLab Detroit.
The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network will use the funding to help develop a new mixed-use site in Detroit that will include a grocery store, café, incubator kitchen, community space, and administrative offices.
Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp.’s partnership with FoodLab Detroit will conduct a feasibility study and facility design to expand Northwest Detroit Farmers’ Market, including a new year-round food hall showcasing FoodLab entrepreneurs.
FLINT
Two early stage projects in Flint, Fresh Start CDC and the North Flint Reinvestment Corp., received funding to support pre-development work for new North Flint grocery stores.
OTHER URBAN CITY AWARDS
Additional awards were given to Bridgepoint Development, LLC, as equity to secure funding and site improvements for a new downtown Jackson market, and to support Ken’s Fruit Markets’ growth of a multi-site grocer in Grand Rapids.
“With these investments we are accelerating greater healthy food access, while also spurring job creation and economic development across our state,” says Dr. Oran B. Hesterman, spokesperson for the Michigan Good Food Fund and president and CEO of Fair Food Network.
Supporters hope that the funding will help spark urban agriculture, a growth sector.
“Healthy food combined with economic opportunity can make a huge difference in our communities and our state.”
Lack of economic development often accompanies lack of access to nutritious foods, research shows. The downtown Jackson market alone is expected to create 35 permanent jobs and several part-time positions.
Even larger numbers impacted by the awards include 1.8 million residents, 300,000 of whom are children, many living in lower-income communities and facing heightened health risks like obesity.
More than 30 percent of Michigan residents are obese, underscoring the Midwest’s second highest obesity rate. In 2011, youth ages 10-17 comprised 32.6 percent of Michigan’s overweight or obese, according to a National Survey of Children’s Health.
If Michigan reduces its population’s average body mass index by just 5 percent, the state can save nearly $9 billion in health care costs by 2020 and more than $24 billion by 2030, according to a study by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America’s Health.
Other beneficiaries of projects chosen for Good Food Fund support include Michigan farmers, whose produce will be used in the community efforts.
Created in partnership by Capital Impact Partners, Fair Food Network, Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Michigan Good Food Fund is a $30 million public-private partnership loan fund. The initiative provides financing and business assistance to good food enterprises that benefit Michigan’s underserved communities.
To find out more about the Michigan Good Food Fund visit MIGoodFoodFund.org or follow the fund on Facebook and Twitter @MIGoodFoodFund.
Good Food Fund helps stock produce aisles added by TheHUB on
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