Check out this video about Reinvestment Fund's work to finance the fit out and equipping of a new 15,000 square foot Save-A-Lot grocery store in Winfield, KS. A veteran-owned and operated business, the store is located in a USDA food desert where the previous grocery store closed in 2013. The store will create 30 jobs and serve residents of a low-income community (23% poverty rate).

Honor Capital, a veteran-owned business with a dual mission to employ returning veterans and to alleviate food desert communities, will operate the Save-A-Lot. The store will be managed by Matt Eisenbach, a Naval Academy graduate who served 6 years of active duty. The store will seek to hire local veterans to fill the new jobs it is creating.

The Save-A-Lot will offer a full array of fresh produce and fresh cut meat in addition to typical grocery departments (dry goods, dairy and frozen). Located in a USDA food desert, the store is on the northeast side of Winfield, more than two miles from the only other food retailers in the city, a Super Walmart and a Dillions located adjacent to each other. No other stores are located within 10 miles.

Honor Capital Save-A-Lot (full profile: reinvestment.com/success-story/honor-capital-save-a-lot/)

The shuttering of three area Walmart stores forced residents in a 44 square mile swath of southwest Wichita, Kansas to live in a food desert. However through the partnership and support of the CDFI Fund, Enterprise Community Loan Fund and veteran-owned business Honor Capital, low-income families again have access to healthy food options and locally-driven economic opportunity.

Too many residents of bi-state Kansas City lack sufficient access to healthy, affordable food. Despite being in the heart of one of the richest agricultural regions in the nation, bi-state Kansas City is home to many communities without supermarkets, grocery stores and other retailers of healthy food. Limited access to nutritious food is an issue in specific neighborhoods, such as Douglas Sumner in Kansas City, Kansas, and Ivanhoe and Marlborough in Kansas City, Missouri. To address these concerns, the Kansas City Grocery Access Task Force was convened by KC Healthy Kids, IFF and The Food Trust. The task force is a cohort of leaders from the grocery industry, state and local governments, as well as the community and economic development, public health and civic sectors. The task force developed nine recommendations for state and local public policies that will improve the availability of healthy, affordable food in underserved areas through the development of supermarkets and grocery stores.