Promising Strategies to Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy Food and ...

PolicyLinkand is assisting in grocery store developmentefforts in New Jersey and New York as well.• Local governments can create fundingpools to support fresh food retailing,and can compile and advertise financingsources that could support new grocerystore development. For example:| | Chicago and New York City havedeveloped one-stop shop efforts thatfacilitate the identification of parcels,provide customized market informationon development opportunities andcommunities, expedite zoning and otherpermitting processes, and coordinategrocery development efforts withdeveloper and neighborhood needs. 93| | The City of New Orleans has developed aFresh Food Retail Incentive Program thatwill leverage $7 million of CommunityDevelopment Block Grant funds withadditional resources to provide forgivableand low-interest loans to grocery storesand other fresh food retail businesses thatsell healthy foods in underserved areas ofOrleans Parish. 94Sources that have been successfully used toattract new grocery stores include CommunityDevelopment Block Grant funds, bondfinancing, and tax increment financing throughredevelopment agencies. Examples of types offinancing that can be used for grocery developmentare highlighted in the PolicyLink report, GroceryStore Attraction Strategies: A Resource Guide forCommunity Activists and Local Governments.Develop and Use Better InformationTools to Assess Underserved Markets• Innovative market analyses. Respondingto the inadequacy of traditional marketinganalyses, companies such as Social Compact,LISC MetroEdge, and The ReinvestmentFund have developed alternative marketassessment methods that more accuratelydescribe the business conditions inunderserved communities. Their results oftenindicate much higher investment potentialthan shown by traditional analyses.• Accurate and timely informationdatabases. To bridge the information gapin underserved communities, cities, andcommunity development intermediaries aroundthe country are developing sophisticateddatabases on property availability, crimeconditions, local demographics, and otherindicators to inform development. TheUrban Markets Initiative of the BrookingsInstitution, for example, is partnering withthe National Neighborhood IndicatorsPartnership and affiliated organizationsin Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee,Providence, and Washington, DC, to developcomprehensive information databases toguide investment decisions in these cities.Improving TransportationTransportation projects can help residents of underserved communities reach grocery stores and farmers’ markets. In thelow-income community of North Sacramento, residents have to travel six miles to reach a supermarket. 102 In 1999, acoalition of community groups helped implement a Neighborhood Ride Shuttle, which transports residents to jobs andgrocery stores located in other parts of the city. The program, initiated as a pilot project, has been integrated into theregional transportation system, and the routes are so popular that they are earning profits. 103There also may be ways to use transportation policies, such as the federal Transportation Reauthorization, to promote accessto healthy food at transit hubs. For example, policies could promote including healthy food retail as part of transit-orienteddevelopment efforts, a planning and design practice that creates compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented communitieslocated around new or existing public transit stations.Healthy Food, Healthy Communities33