Growing Community Health & Wealth Through Food

An illustrated salad leaf and some seeds.
An illustrated onion.

See What’s Possible When We Start with Food

At Fair Food Network, we believe that when we start with food, so much is possible: collaborative solutions, vibrant communities, and new paths forward. Together, we can grow a more equitable, resilient food economy.

How we’re supporting families, farmers, and local economies

First piloted in Michigan in 2009, our Double Up Food Bucks program now serves as a national model for nutrition incentives. Double Up matches SNAP (or food stamp) purchases of fruits and vegetables, helping families with low income bring home more healthy food while boosting business for farmers and food retailers.

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How we’re investing in food businesses creating positive change

We support food and farm businesses with catalytic capital, wrap-around business services, and a commitment to place-based impact investing collectives. We focus our investments on people who are most often overlooked by traditional investors, particularly people who have been marginalized due to their race, ethnicity, and/or gender. Together, we are building a more vibrant, inclusive food economy.

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How we’re partnering with the Nutrition Incentive Hub

Leveraging our experience and lessons learned from building and scaling programs like Double Up Food Bucks, we lead technical assistance and innovation for the Nutrition Incentive Hub, a USDA-supported center launched in partnership with Center for Nutrition and Health Impact. The Hub strengthens nutrition incentive and produce prescription projects across the country.

A mother and son smiling behind a shelf of kale and hiding a basket of apples at the farmers market
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An illustrated salad leaf and some seeds.

Change Is Happening Right Now

From advancing our nutrition incentives work to investing in food and farm businesses, our approach is designed to create an immediate impact and long-term systems change.

$M

Total dollars we invested into communities in 2023.

$M+

Combined SNAP and Double Up sales since 2009.

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Pounds of healthy food purchased with SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks in Michigan since 2009.

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Free Virtual Roundtable
Recording Now Available

Watch Fair Food Network's free virtual roundtable on how resilient food systems are taking root across our nation.

This event features a lively discussion with Alicia Higa, Chief Health Equity Officer at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Executive Director at ‘Elepaio Social Services; Paula Daniels, Co-founder, Chief of What's Next, and Founding Chair of the Center for Good Food Purchasing; and moderator Oran Hesterman, Founder & Resident Champion at Fair Food Network.

A collage of two women smiling at the camera with a frame of taro leaves, passionfruit and bananas in front of them.

Pictured left to right: Paula Daniels and Alicia Higa

Stories From the Field

Continuing to meet the need

Food insecurity predates the coronavirus and inflation, and presents a growing problem in the U.S. With the help of nutrition incentive programs like Double Up Food Bucks, families using SNAP can bring home the fresh fruits and vegetables they need and want. In turn, local farmers and food retailers have more economic opportunities, and more dollars keep circulating in our communities.   

See the win-win-win benefits of nutrition incentive programs in our latest impact report.

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Despite the good intentions and creative strategies of impact investors, extreme wealth inequity persists. The climate crisis will only deepen the divide, unless we change quickly. Many impact investors are investing and giving more to meet the challenges of our world. But entrenched relational norms that prioritize capital and transactions over community and relationships are much slower to change.

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Reshaping investment norms to fight wealth inequity

Despite the good intentions and creative strategies of impact investors, extreme wealth inequity persists. The climate crisis will only deepen the divide, unless we change quickly. Many impact investors are investing and giving more to meet the challenges of our world. But entrenched relational norms that prioritize capital and transactions over community and relationships are much slower to change.

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