UPDATE: Alabama’s Healthy Food Financing Act

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Alabama Legislature passed the Healthy Food Financing Act in May 2015, that revolutionized and expanded incentives to renovate grocery stores and fresh food retailers to offer more healthy fresh food options.

Not only would the Bill provide more access to fresh foods, but also create opportunities to help increase local jobs, explained Sen. Greg Reed in a recent article.  The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) will administer the funds and announced on January 21st, 2016 to commit to set aside new funds towards the implementation of the program.

Sen. Reed went on to say that the revolving fund for the Healthy Food Financing Program will be helpful to local economies as it adds additional local grocery stores and fresh food retailers. The stores will renovate, expand and develop, creating stable, good-paying jobs.

Many other partners and businesses are helping the new grocers and fresh food businesses start, with community development programs, small business credit loans, development block grants, and energy loans.

A recent article by VOICES for Alabama’s Children reported that more than 1.8 million Alabamians, including nearly half a million children, live in areas with limited access to grocers and fresh food retailers.

Having healthier food financing initiatives are part of building not only a healthier economy but also a healthier community.

VOICES for Alabama’s Children, the Alabama Grocers Association, the American Heart Association along with over 50 state and national partners launched the healthy food access campaign in Alabama in early 2013, seeking to raise awareness about the growing concern of childhood obesity and its relationship to food access. All three organizations continue the work that was started two years ago to bring healthy food closer to home for everyone in Alabama.

To learn more about how having access to healthier foods helps Latino families combat obesity, click here.