The HFFI Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund (HFFI FARE Fund) is a new program under the expanded America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative.
Donor Name: Healthy Food Financing Initiative
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 08/04/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Over the next 5 years, the new program will provide $60 million in loans, grants, and technical assistance for the predevelopment, planning, and implementation of eligible food retail and food retail supply chain projects.
Funding Information
Grant awards will be up to $250,000 for implementation and up to $100,000 for early-stage planning, predevelopment, and technical assistance. Loans to eligible projects may range between $500,000-$5,000,000. Loans may be paired with technical assistance or a grant to strengthen the viability of the project.
Eligible Projects
- The HFFI FARE Fund could assist a variety of organizations, business models, and capital needs of ventures that process, distribute, aggregate, market, and sell healthy, fresh, and affordable foods to underserved communities and markets.
- Applicants must demonstrate how their proposed project will contribute to food access through the availability of an assortment of Staple and Perishable Foods for retail sale, either directly or as part of the retail supply chain. Funding should build programmatic capacity, unlock additional sources of capital, catalyze project sustainability, meet financing gaps, and/or enable the next phase of project implementation for deeper impact or reach.
- Funding is designed to support catalytic projects that aren’t able to access traditional financing and may be used for predevelopment activities, equipment, construction hard costs, acquisition of land or buildings, and other one-time soft costs such as community engagement and environmental assessment.
Eligibility Criteria
- For-profit business enterprises (including a corporation, limited liability company, sole proprietor, public benefit corporation)
- Cooperatively owned businesses
- Tax-exempt nonprofit corporations
- Institutions of higher education
- State and local governments and governmental agencies, authorities, commissions and food policy councils
- Tribal governments and tribal governmental agencies, authorities, and food policy councils
- State, local, and tribal governments are eligible for grants and technical assistance but not for loans currently.
For more information, visit HFFI.
