LANSING — The Michigan Good Food Fund is a public-private partnership loan and grant fund that has been created to address lack of healthy food access in rural and urban communities alike by supporting good food entrepreneurs across the state.
“There are far too many families who have to travel many miles just to get to a grocery store,” says U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D – Lansing, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. “The Michigan Good Food Fund is changing that equation in Michigan.”
The Michigan Good Food Fund addresses the significant need for healthy food access in rural and urban communities alike. The lack of access to affordable and nutritious food has serious implications for the health of children and families—more than 30 percent of Michiganders are obese, the second highest rate of obesity in the Midwest region.
Created by a coalition of food sector, nonprofit, higher education, government and philanthropic partners, the fund provides financial capital and business assistance to businesses that grow, distribute and sell fresh and healthy food that reaches low-income populations. This effort will increase access to healthy food, improve the health of all Michigan residents and drive economic development and job creation.
The Michigan Good Food Fund supports efforts across the value chain including healthy food production, distribution, processing, marketing and retail projects. It will offer financing through flexible, competitive loans as well as grants investments with a mission-driven approach targeting those enterprises often overlooked by traditional sources of financing.
At launch, fund investors include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States committed to partnering with communities where children come first, and the Max and Marjorie Fisher Foundation. The goal is to grow the fund to $30 million.
