Atlanta announces $3M investment for healthy food access across the city

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced a $3 million investment to enhance healthy food access across the city as part of America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI).

Invest Atlanta and Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs will work together on what’s called the Atlanta Food Access Investment Initiative funded through the HFFI.

“Programs like HFFI are vital to our communities because ninety-eight percent of disinvested neighborhoods in Atlanta include census tracts that lack access to healthy food,” said Dr. Eloisa Klementich, Invest Atlanta CEO and president. “The HFFI funding expands our continuous efforts to overcome food access challenges and help food retailers, including those owned by and people of color, looking to invest in our communities.”

The funding will do several things to provide healthy food access and revitalize low-income communities, including providing low-interest rate loans to businesses enhancing food access to underserved communities and help with research on the food retail landscape in certain areas.

Those areas include the Bowen Homes Choice neighborhood, Thomasville Heights and parts of Donald Lee Hollowell, Campbellton and M.L.K.

CHRIS 180, a nonprofit, said it is important to be able to get healthy food. The group’s focus is on mental health and the overall well-being of families, which includes occasional food giveaways.

“When you think about people who live in food insecure areas, areas where there’s not a high level of grocery stores or things that are affordable for them, it’s important for us to put out quality foods to people that they can get at no charge,” Chaundra Luckett, CHRIS 180 director of marketing, said.

The goal of the city’s initiative is to address immediate food needs and find long-term solutions.

Source: atlantanewsfirst.com