The Power of Community Investment: CLF's Healthy Retail and Commerce Fund Offers a New Model for Social Investment.

• Author: O'Reilly, Laurie

IN THE HEART OF PROVIDENCE'S SOUTH SIDE, work is underway to transform a historic building into a vibrant community food hub. When complete, the 12,000-square-foot space will be the new headquarters for the Southside Community Land Trust. But, more importantly, it will serve as a gathering place and source of healthy, affordable food for the neighbors, youth, and farmers the Land Trust serves.

As one of the inaugural investments of CLF's Healthy Retail and Commerce Fund, it will also showcase the power of social impact investing in supporting healthy, livable neighborhoods.

PROVIDENCE'S SOUTH SIDE ENCOMPASSES four neighborhoods that have long been a draw for immigrants, from Irish Catholics in the late 19th century to Hispanics, Africans, Laotians, and Hmong refugees in the 1980s. It was newly arrived Hmong refugees who helped the Southside Community Land Trust get its start. In 1981, they joined with other residents and students from Brown University to reclaim a vacant lot to grow fresh, culturally familiar, healthy food for their families and neighbors.

In the four decades since then, the organization's mission has evolved to serve people in urban neighborhoods where fresh produce is nearly impossible to find--especially in quantities and at prices that support residents' health. Today, Southside Community Land Trust's 52 gardens feed more than 3,000 families. The organization also provides land for 25 urban and rural farmers, trains 50 beginning farmers each year, and educates more than 200 children annually in the fundamentals of healthy food. Its scope extends to Central Falls and Pawtucket, while maintaining its South Providence roots.

One part of the organization hadn't grown in years, however --and that was the small house that serves as its headquarters. Those space constraints limited their ability to expand their staff and, in turn, the programs they could offer, says Executive Director Margaret DeVos.

Just as importantly, the Land Trust wanted a hub to support its local farmers. "Many of our farmers don't have the networks or the volume to sell their food outside of farmers' markets," says DeVos. The Land Trust envisioned a space where they could help these small-scale farmers reach bigger markets by aggregating their produce with other crops and distributing them to large customers. "So every farmer doesn't have to sell every vegetable on their own--they can operate like other farms that are successful," she says.

When a...