Overview

In 2010, supported by the CDFI Fund’s Capacity Building Initiative, OFN began offering training for CDFIs to successfully finance food-related businesses — from production, to distribution, to retail.

Healthy Food Financing Resources

Below is an archive of Nurturing Healthy Food Financing webinars, supported by MetLife Foundation and Capital One.

CDFIs and Public Health

For CDFIs moving into the world of healthy food financing, measuring and improving public health impacts can be a daunting addition to an already long list of social and economic impact goals. In this webinar, we learn how CDFIs can effectively talk about and work toward public health outcomes, better measure public health metrics among other social and economic impact goals, and engage public health professionals and community partners in their work.

Hosted on 1/24/2013

Energy Efficiency and Healthy Food Retail

Energy Efficiency and Healthy Food Retail

Energy is one of the highest costs for grocers, particularly in rural areas. Learn how CDFIs can provide loans to improve energy efficiency among food retail outlets and increase access to healthy foods for underserved areas. MACED and Natural Capital Investment Fund discuss their own experiences in providing energy efficiency loans to rural grocers.

Hosted on 1/15/2013

Underwriting Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

Underwriting Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

This webinar provides critical information about underwriting supermarket and other grocery retail borrowers and projects for financing.

Hosted on 1/15/2013

Rural Healthy Food Retail Challenges and Opportunities

Rural Healthy Food Retail: Challenges and Opportunities

Local grocery stores are a critical anchor institution sustaining America’s rural communities. This webinar highlights Kansas State University’s Rural Grocery Initiative and its research to better understand the challenges and needs of these small businesses. Learn how one CDFI, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., is working to provide financing to rural grocery stores to improve access to healthy foods.

Hosted on 1/10/2013

The Grocery Gap

The Grocery Gap

High-quality, full-service supermarkets improve the health and economic well-being of communities. However, supermarket operators face significant obstacles entering and operating in many low-income, urban communities. This webinar, developed by UpLift Solutions, explains the “Grocery Gap” and the financial and operational strategies that can enable supermarkets to
be successful.

Hosted on 12/12/2012

Financing Healthy Food Retail

Financing Healthy Food Retail: Program Design and Impact Measurement

Learn about designing a healthy food financing program and measuring its impact. In particular, the presentation outlines important elements to consider when creating a program, including the eligibility process, application process, and product development. Additionally, understand how to define impact as it relates to healthy food financing and how to develop impact tracking tools. The webinar also explores when data related to impact measurement should be gathered, what metrics are a “want to have” versus a “need to have,” and how data can assist CDFIs in improving their own performance.

Hosted on 12/6/2012

Underwriting Small and Emerging Farms

Underwriting Small and Emerging Farms

This webinar highlights the critical elements to underwriting food producers, focusing on small and emerging farms, which are often difficult to analyze and need customized loan structuring. Discussion includes seasonality, cash flow analysis and collateral, and includes “live” farming examples.

Hosted on 11/29/2012

Underwriting Natural Food Cooperatives

Underwriting Natural Food Cooperatives

Today’s natural food cooperatives are a thriving part of the natural food retail landscape. This webinar offers a basic overview of natural foods retailing, with specific emphasis on consumer-owned natural foods cooperatives. Learn about the unique aspects of underwriting cooperatively-owned enterprises, review typical financial performance measures for natural foods cooperatives, and explore a brief case study of a recent project.

Hosted on 11/14/2012

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