State of Louisiana Approves $7 Million for Fresh Food Initiative in New Orleans
September 11th, 2009 by Glenda Johnson
Great news for advocates who’ve been working, at the local and state level, to increase access to healthy food to underserved communities. Louisiana just approved $7 million for fresh food initiative in New Orleans. Check out the press release from the Louisiana Recovery Authority:
BATON ROUGE, La. - The state of Louisiana has approved $7 million for the Fresh Food Retailers Initiative program, allowing the City of New Orleans to access federal Community Development Block Grant funds needed to implement the project.
The Fresh Food Retail Initiative is a three-year program of forgivable and low-interest loans made to supermarkets, grocery stores and other fresh food retailers, designed to provide healthy food at affordable prices in underserved neighborhoods in New Orleans.
The funding comes from the Long Term Community Recovery Program, a $700 million pool of federal disaster-recovery money set aside by the Louisiana Recovery Authority and Office of Community Development to help local governments rebuild and implement long-term recovery plans.
LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said, “The Louisiana Recovery Authority supports local residents and national experts in their belief that rebuilding healthy food stores is critical, not only for the health of residents, but for the economic health and recovery of entire neighborhoods, as well.”
Hurricane Katrina exacerbated the lack of fresh, healthy foods available in many New Orleans neighborhoods. As of January 2009, only 19 full-service supermarkets had reopened — half the number in operation prior to the storm. Moreover, most of the supermarkets are located in the wealthier and/or higher-ground neighborhoods such as the Garden District, Uptown and Algiers. In a 2007 Tulane University survey, nearly 60 percent of low-income residents reported they must drive more than three miles to a supermarket, but only 58 percent owned a car.
The CDBG money will establish the fresh food program by providing up to 50 percent in matching funds to an FFRI partnership, which will consist of a local nonprofit and a community development lender. Competitively selected and overseen by the City of New Orleans, the FFRI partnership will ensure that new or existing stores dedicate significant shelf space to fresh produce, as well as oversee product placement, marketing and outreach efforts to low-income neighborhoods.
The Fresh Food Retailers Initiative program is a component of the city’s broader Healthy Communities agenda, which works toward the goal of widespread access to affordable fresh food.
The state’s LTCR program supports implementation of local governments’ long-term recovery plans in the most heavily impacted communities in the state.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved LRA’s request to reallocate $500 million in CDBG dollars to the program, bringing to $700 million the total amount of long-term recovery funding available to the parishes. Funds are distributed among the parishes through the LRA/Office of Community Development according to a formula based on estimated housing and infrastructure damages inflicted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.