2026 Food Access and Retail Expansion (FARE) Fund
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J. Parlin (Pima County Extension)
Limiting Language
The HFFI FARE Fund will only accept one Funding Inquiry per entity per RFA.
Program Description
This Request for Applications (RFA) is for the 2026 HFFI Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund (HFFI FARE Fund) Grant and Technical Assistance funding for the predevelopment, planning, and implementation of eligible projects aiming to increase food access, and strengthen, expand, and innovate within the food retail supply chain. For the 2026 funding cycle, at least $5,250,000 is available for planning and implementation Grants and at least $1,000,000 is available for Technical Assistance.
The HFFI FARE Fund supports innovative fresh Food Retail and Food Enterprise business models that seek to improve consumer access to healthy food in underserved areas through food retail. Funding can be used for project development, renovation, and/or expansion. Funding is designed to be one-time investments of capital into projects creating a food retail or food supply chain enterprise business model in order to address higher costs and initial barriers to entry in underserved rural and urban areas. Planning and implementation Grants should unlock additional sources of capital, catalyze project sustainability, meet financing gaps, and/or enable deeper impact or project reach. Grants are available for both early-stage planning and predevelopment projects and implementation shovel-ready projects that have a site identified and/or established site control, have completed feasibility tasks, and present a reasonable timeline for opening. Technical Assistance (TA) will be available to support specific contractual soft costs for early-stage planning, predevelopment, and business assistance needs where resources would help build local capacity to develop a Food Retail Outlet or Food Enterprise and would clarify or advance an eligible project.