New Jersey Innovative Healthy Food Retail Initiative now accepting applications

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This initiative provides grant funding for innovative, community-focused healthy food retailers striving to improve access to affordable, fresh, and healthy foods in underserved areas of New Jersey.  

$1.5 million in funding is available for grants of up to $200,000 each. Grants will support the implementation of new projects or the expansion of existing ones, focusing on processing, distributing, aggregating, marketing, or selling healthy, fresh, and affordable foods in New Jersey communities with limited healthy food access. Projects should seek to implement innovative ideas that are beyond the traditional, full-service grocery store and demonstrate long-term sustainability if awarded.    

Eligibility Criteria 

To qualify, projects must: 

• Be a healthy food retail project that expands or preserves staple and perishable foods or works with clients who do so. 
• Serve a low to moderate-income (LMI) area with a median family income equal to or below 80% of the local median. 
• Serve a Low Supermarket Access (LSA) area or be located in a New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) designated Food Desert Community. 
• Accept SNAP or plan to accept SNAP, or if a food enterprise project, must serve clients who accept or plan to accept SNAP. 

Eligible Applicants 

For-profit, nonprofit, and cooperatively owned businesses, community health and other anchor institutions, state and local governments, and tribal governments working to improve food access for underserved communities in New Jersey through food retail. 

Important Dates 

Letter of Interest (LOI) Deadline: Friday, June 14, 2024, at 11:59 PM ET 

Informational Webinar: Thursday, May 23, 2024, at 2:00 PM ET. Please register here.

How to Apply 

For more information on eligibility, the application process, and how to apply, read the full Request for Applications (RFA) here.

Questions?

Reach out with specific questions to NJ-innovativehealthyfoodretail@reinvestment.com  

This initiative is a collaborative effort between Reinvestment Fund and The Food Trust and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.