Impact Investing
Fueling the success of
local food entrepreneurs.
We believe that food businesses are powerful engines for positive change. Working at the intersection of food, health, and economic justice, we fuel the success of food entrepreneurs through catalytic capital, wrap-around business services, and a commitment to place-based impact investing collectives. Together, we’re building thriving communities and a more inclusive economy.
Fair Food Fund
Farmers, grocers, and other local food entrepreneurs provide their communities with vital nourishment, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship. Working at the intersection of food, health, and economic justice, we support food entrepreneurs’ success through catalytic capital, wrap-around business assistance, 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.
Are you an entrepreneur looking for investment?
What We Offer
Wrap-Around Business Assistance
We bring more than money to the table. We help our entrepreneurs make critical connections, access to industry expertise, and immersive training.
Catalytic Capital
We aim to invest creative, catalytic capital that moves the needle for entrepreneurs, and we often partner with other lenders to enable investments that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
National Network & Resources
As a connector, business assistance provider, and co-investor, we open access to resources and a national network built over decades of work in food and agriculture, community-based impact investing, and entrepreneurship.
By the Numbers
Total Investments (Since Inception)
Financing Committed for Food Entrepreneurs (Dec. 31, 2022)
Every dollar invested was generating nearly $9 in community benefits inclusive of jobs and local purchasing circulating resources in the local economy
Featured Investments
From farm-to-table community caterers working to increase healthy food access to entrepreneurs on the frontier of sustainable aquaculture, meet a few of the enterprises we’ve invested in that are transforming the business of food for healthier, wealthier, more equitable communities.
The Latest From the Fair Food Fund
Dig into our most recent Quarterly Update for the latest investments and stories of impact from the field or check out our interactive 2022 Impact Report.
Place-Based Funds
While our vision is national, our work and impact is always local. In addition to our direct investments, we also convene and develop place-based impact investing collectives that work at the intersection of food, health, and economic justice.
Michigan Good Food Fund
The Michigan Good Food Fund is a statewide food financing collaborative with a deep commitment to addressing two of the most pressing challenges of our time—growing inequality and climate change—through food. The collaborative is designed to support state-wide food entrepreneurs, from farm to fork, sparking positive change in their communities.
As a founding member and the administrative manager, we facilitated a Stakeholder Board that brings together entrepreneurs, business assistance providers, community partners, food system practitioners, and lenders. Together, the Stakeholder Board sets the vision of success, investment policies and priorities, informs strategy, and maintains accountability—ensuring investments respond to community-identified needs.
The Latest From Place-Based Funds
Dig into our latest results, stories about food businesses we work with, and more.
