Virginia Food Access Investment Fund Helps Provide an Oasis for Food Deserts
In partnership with: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
The Virginia Food Access Investment Fund (VFAIF) is an oasis for food deserts – communities that lack access to affordable fresh, nutritious food. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services granted $500,000 from the fund in 2022 to help 10 businesses and nonprofits provide better food access in their neighborhoods.
Food deserts affect nearly 18% of all Virginians. According to Virginia Cooperative Extension, they reach within every region, impacting up to 26% of people in some areas.
“Ending food insecurity is a major priority of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration,” VDACS Commissioner Joseph Guthrie says. “The Virginia Food Access Investment Fund grant program allows us to partner with innovative businesses and organizations to help build strong, resilient food supply chains and improve access to nutritious, safe and affordable foods for all Virginians.”
Hybla Valley Community Farm Market (previously known as Lee District Community Farm Market), Norfolk Food Ecosystem and River City Market are among the 2022 grant recipients.
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Food for Fairfax
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture is a nonprofit with a mission to create more equitable and sustainable food systems in northern Virginia. Arcadia trains veterans to be farmers and offers field trips and summer farm camps to students on historic farmland once owned by George Washington, among other projects.
“The grant gives us the capacity to dive even deeper into the community around the farm and expands our approach of bringing healthy food where it’s needed by providing a connection to a new neighborhood,” says Pamela Hess, Arcadia executive director.
The need for better food system control became clear during the pandemic, when Arcadia’s service area saw a disproportionate health and economic impact, she explains.
With the grant money, Arcadia will establish a weekly farm market at the Hybla Valley Community Center (previously known as the Lee District Community Center), which serves low-income Fairfax County communities. The grant provides a part-time staff member to coordinate local farm sourcing, community outreach and farm stand operations.
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Enriching Richmond
When Sister Zatima X raised six children and operated a licensed daycare, fresh produce was hard to find in the Brookland Park neighborhood on the north side of Richmond.
She was determined to provide a fresh start nutritionally when she opened River City Market in 2019. Not only is it the only grocery store within walking distance for more than 10,000 households, but it also includes products from more than 20 other minority-owned local businesses. River City Market welcomes everyone and is an active community stakeholder, she says.
While it already offers some local produce and weekly mobile markets, the funding will help the market’s Fresh Start Initiative expand both produce sales and the mobile markets.
“It will enable us to strengthen relationships with current farmers and vendors,” she says. Most importantly, it helps bring to life her motto: “Eat to live, live well.”
Those words aptly reflect the purpose of the Food Access Investment Fund, as well.
Nourishment for Norfolk
St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation established the Norfolk Food Ecosystem because of the complex nature of food insecurity, says President Leahmarie Gottlieb.
“Food is medicine and serves as a catalyst to identify other barriers within a household,” she says.
The organization has three core pillars: business, workforce development, and health and wellness. The VFAIF grant funding expands the organizations’ health and wellness reach with the Food Pharmacy Program, a six-month program providing case management, nutritional education and two bags of produce to participants each month.
The nonprofit enlarges an innovative retail model by strengthening its relationship with Park Avenue Market, a neighborhood store with a 30-year history and recent expansion into fresh produce, seafood and meats.
With the funding, Park Avenue Market becomes both a training center to teach locals grocery management and operation for future employment opportunities and a retail hub bringing together other small retailers to better leverage wholesale prices.
“Neighborhood stores like this one are community anchors, and this funding helps us support them and the people reliant on them,” Gottlieb says.
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