Michigan Fund Gets $3M to Help Food, Farm Businesses Statewide

The Michigan Good Food Fund was awarded $3 million by Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Partnerships Program.
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Tractor plowing field
The Michigan Good Food Fund received $3 to help its mission of increasing local food capacity. // Stock photo

The Michigan Good Food Fund was awarded $3 million by Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Partnerships Program.

The HFFI program invests in local capacity to establish and grow partnerships between organizations that are working at the local, state, or regional level to provide financing and technical assistance to food retail and food supply chain businesses in underserved communities.

This support will enable the Michigan Good Food Fund, a $30 million public-private partnership loan fund, to further its mission of investing in food and farm businesses. The group was launched in 2015, and it offers food and farm businesses flexible financing and tailored business assistance through a network of lending partners and advisors.

The goal is to foster a resilient, inclusive food industry in Michigan, particularly supporting entrepreneurs historically marginalized due to race, ethnicity, and/or gender.

Michigan Good Food Fund is one of 16 recipients of the HFFI Partnership Program’s most recent round of $40.3 million in funding. These awards collectively represent 75 local organizations creating or expanding food financing programs and increasing access to healthy foods in 20 states and Washington, D.C. The Fair Food Network administers the Michigan Good Food Fund.

“We’re deeply grateful for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Reinvestment Fund’s support, propelling Michigan Good Food Fund’s mission forward and benefiting food and farm businesses statewide,” says Aaron Jackson, director of Michigan Good Food Fund at Fair Food Network.

“This funding will be used toward innovative credit enhancements, helping us to unlock vital capital and support the success of food entrepreneurs. By leveraging these enhancements, we mitigate risk, ease financial paths, and address challenges like fluctuating interest rates, helping entrepreneurs repay loans more feasibly and focus on their important work — feeding our communities.”

Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (MSU CRFS), a founding partner of the Michigan Good Food Fund collective, supported Fair Food Network’s effort to obtain the new funding and is one of the collective’s lead business assistance providers.

MSU CRFS also was recently selected to coordinate the USDA Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center and through both regional and statewide programs supports small- and mid-sized food and farm businesses in underserved places.

“We envision an equitable and sustainable food system rooted in thriving local economies and centered on food that is healthy, green and affordable,” says Jude Barry, associate director of MSU CRFS. “Support from the HFFI Partnerships Program will greatly strengthen and extend Michigan Good Food Fund’s ability to offer sector specific integrated capital to the good food enterprises it serves.”