Investing in Community Health: California Freshworks Fund Initiative

The disparity in neighborhood food retail environments that exists in low-income communities of color throughout California is alarming since those who live near full-service grocery stores are more likely to eat recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables and are less likely to become obese. The California FreshWorks Fund Initiative is a $260 million public-private partnership loan fund created to bring full-service grocery stores, corner markets that offer fresh food, and other innovative forms of healthy food retail and distribution to food desert communities. FreshWorks is funded by The California Endowment. In partnership with The Food Trust and Pacific Community Ventures, we are using a mixed-method approach including store assessments, key informant interviews with store managers and CFWF stakeholders, customer intercept surveys, GIS mapping, and analysis of secondary data to understand the process and impact of opening new healthy food outlets in under-resourced areas of California.  This presentation will describe the CFWF loan fund and provide findings from the evaluation of the impact of new healthy food retail on low income communities and reducing the gap in disparities in healthy food access.