Healthy Food

Increasing access to healthy, affordable food

About 10% of families in the US face hunger and food insecurity — defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. By financing grocery stores in food deserts, for example, BlueHub helps developers bring fresh food to where its needed most.

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Our healthy food financing work

BlueHub Loan Fund finances projects that provide residents easy access to affordable, healthy food and health-promoting services.

We look to partner on healthy food real estate projects that are part of broad efforts to promote resident health and that align with neighborhood revitalization plans, such as:

For-profit and nonprofit grocery stores
Food bank facilities
Farm-to-market centers

" " — A staff member at The Fresh Grocer, a store owned by Brown's Super Stores in Philadelphia, PA that provides access to healthy food and job opportunities.
*Photo by Andrew Wilkinson*

What we offer

We are creative, accessible, relationship lenders.

At BlueHub Loan Fund, we customize our financing to match the needs of each borrower and project. We are life-cycle lenders, supporting projects throughout their development cycles, from early-stage predevelopment and acquisition financing, to permanent loans for stabilized operations, and every financing need in between.

We have a track record of providing flexible, low-cost capital to projects that provide healthy food and programming to support resident health.

We offer a full range of flexible loan products for healthy food projects, including:

BlueHub Loan Fund helps with financing for real estate acquisition in connection with the development of grocery stores and other facilities that increase access to healthy foods.

We can combine an acquisition loan with a predevelopment loan to allow borrowers to advance the design of their project while they secure the complete project funding.

We will consider loan amounts that approach or even exceed 100% of the value of the collateral.

When the cash coming in from committed project sources does not align with the construction schedule or funder requirements, BlueHub Loan Fund can help with a bridge loan.

BlueHub Loan Fund provides short-term financing for construction, advancing funds into the project monthly after work has been completed and reviewed.

BlueHub Loan Fund works with partners to design financing that helps move healthy food real estate projects forward.

BlueHub Loan Fund finances improvements to leased spaces.

BlueHub Loan Fund is an experienced lender to healthy food projects utilizing New Markets Tax Credits equity, effectively leveraging our expertise with this complex program as a multi-year recipient of New Markets Tax Credits.

BlueHub Loan Fund can provide longer-term financing for food enterprises with stable operations that are supported by the net operating income of the enterprise.

Once a borrower has a feasible project, identified project funding sources, a project timeline, and control of their site, BlueHub Loan Fund can fund a large portion of the up-front costs related to work with architects, lawyers and engineers to advance the development to construction closing.

BlueHub Loan Fund can provide debt behind senior bank financing when a healthy food enterprise has sufficient cash flow and to support additional debt.

“BlueHub got involved because the financing for this project is very complicated...The project couldn’t have happened without them.”

Lucie Searle Farm Fresh Rhode Island Food Hub Project Manager

Who we partner with

BlueHub Loan Fund provides financing to large and small nonprofit and for-profit organizations across the country who are increasing access to healthy food for low-income communities, including:

Farm Fresh Rhode Island (Providence, RI)
Brown's Super Stores (Philadelphia, PA)
Vicente's Tropical Market (Brockton, MA)

In addition, we are a proud member of the Food Lenders Network, a national network of over 20 mission-driven lenders focused on creating a more just, equitable and resilient food system.

Our impact in healthy food financing

$46.8M

Invested in healthy food access

$16.6M

Received in healthy food financing from CDFI Fund

Contact Us

To inquire about a loan for a community development project, please complete the form below. Please note that we do not provide small business loans.