I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 484
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to States to support
the establishment and operation of grocery stores in underserved commu-
nities, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. C
ARSON(for himself, Mr. CARTERof Louisiana, Mr. CASTEN, Mrs.
C
HERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. COHEN, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN, Mrs.
D
INGELL, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. GOLDMANof New York, Ms. NORTON,
Mr. H
ORSFORD, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr.
L
ARSONof Connecticut, Mr. LYNCH, Mrs. MCIVER, Mr. MOULTON, Mr.
M
RVAN, Mr. MULLIN, Ms. ROSS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. SCHOLTEN, Mr.
S
OTO, Ms. STANSBURY, Ms. STEVENS, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. TAKANO, Mr.
T
ONKO, Ms. TOKUDA, and Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to
States to support the establishment and operation of
grocery stores in underserved communities, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food Deserts Act’’. 4
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SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM TO ESTABLISH GROCERY STORES 1
IN UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF GRANTPROGRAM.—The 3
Secretary shall establish a program to provide capitaliza-4
tion grants to States for the purpose of establishing re-5
volving funds to support the establishment and operation 6
of grocery stores in underserved communities. 7
(b) A
DMINISTRATION.—A State receiving funds 8
under this Act shall administer the revolving fund of the 9
State through an instrumentality of the State with such 10
powers and limitations as may be required to operate such 11
fund in accordance with the requirements of this Act. 12
(c) P
ROJECTS ANDACTIVITIESELIGIBLE FORAS-13
SISTANCE.—Amounts in a revolving fund shall be used for 14
the purpose of making loans— 15
(1) to open a grocery store in an underserved 16
community, except that such loan may not be used 17
for the purpose of new construction; 18
(2) to support the operations of an existing gro-19
cery store in an underserved community; 20
(3) to provide access to healthy food; or 21
(4) to support the operations of a program par-22
ticipant that is located in a community that would 23
be an underserved community if the program partici-24
pant was not located in such community. 25
(d) G
ROCERYSTORESELIGIBLE FORASSISTANCE.— 26
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(1) REQUIRED CRITERIA.—A State receiving a 1
capitalization grant under this Act may only make 2
a loan from the revolving fund of the State to an en-3
tity that the State determines— 4
(A) is a grocery store or will be a grocery 5
store after opening; 6
(B) emphasizes or will emphasize unproc-7
essed, healthful foods; 8
(C) provides or will provide a variety of 9
raw fruits and vegetables; 10
(D) provides or will provide staple foods; 11
(E) has a plan to keep such foods in stock 12
to the extent possible; 13
(F) charge affordable at or below market 14
values; 15
(G) either— 16
(i) is demonstrably qualified to oper-17
ate a grocery store; or 18
(ii) at the time of such application, 19
has existing partnerships with organiza-20
tions that provide technical assistance on 21
business operations of food services; and 22
(H) will match no less than 20 percent, 23
from non-Federal funds, of the amount of such 24
loan. 25
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(2) PRIORITY CRITERIA .—A State shall 1
prioritize an application for a loan from the revolv-2
ing fund of the State from an entity that the State 3
determines— 4
(A) hires or plans to hire workers who re-5
side within the underserved community that 6
would be served by the entity; 7
(B) provides or plans to provide classes or 8
other educational information about a healthful 9
diet; 10
(C) sources or plans to source food from 11
local urban farms and gardens; and 12
(D) demonstrates existing supply chain re-13
lationships in the grocery industry. 14
(e) A
PPLICATION.—An entity that desires a loan 15
from a revolving fund of a State shall submit an applica-16
tion to the State at such time, in such manner, and con-17
taining such information as the State may require. 18
(f) L
OANCONDITIONS.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A loan distributed from a 20
revolving fund by a State may be used by a program 21
participant only for the purposes specified in sub-22
section (c). 23
(2) I
NTEREST RATES.—A loan distributed by a 24
State from a revolving fund— 25
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•HR 484 IH
(A) shall be made at or below market in-1
terest rates; and 2
(B) may be an interest free loan, at terms 3
not to exceed the lesser of 30 years or the pro-4
jected useful life (as determined by the State) 5
of the project to be financed with the proceeds 6
of the loan. 7
(3) S
TRUCTURE OF LOAN .—A loan may be dis-8
tributed from a revolving fund by a State to a pro-9
gram participant in— 10
(A) a lump sum; or 11
(B) in multiple distributions over a period 12
of years, if the State determines multiple dis-13
tributions are necessary to carry out the 14
project. 15
(4) L
OAN AMOUNT.—A State may not provide 16
a loan to a program participant from the revolving 17
fund of the State in a fiscal year that exceeds 10 18
percent of the amount available from the fund for 19
making distributions in that fiscal year. 20
(5) P
AYMENTS.—Annual principal and interest 21
payments on a loan received from a revolving fund 22
of a State shall commence not later than 1 year 23
after the loan is disbursed to the program partici-24
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•HR 484 IH
pant and all loans will be fully amortized upon the 1
expiration of the term of the loan. 2
(6) R
EVENUE FOR REPAYMENT .—A program 3
participant shall establish a dedicated source of rev-4
enue for repayment of a loan received from a revolv-5
ing fund of a State. 6
(7) C
REDITING REVOLVING FUND .—A revolving 7
fund of a State shall be credited with all payments 8
of principal and interest on all loans made from the 9
revolving fund. 10
(g) A
DMINISTRATIONCOSTS.—A State shall charge 11
a program participant an administrative fee of not more 12
than 4 percent of the loan amount. The State shall use 13
the fees to administer the revolving fund and conduct ad-14
ministration activities under this Act. 15
(h) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 16
provide technical assistance to program participants to as-17
sist with sourcing of food, food storage, and other oper-18
ational requirements. 19
(i) B
ANKRUPTCY.—In the case of the bankruptcy of 20
a program participant, amounts owed on a loan from a 21
revolving fund shall be afforded precedence over other 22
debt. 23
(j) C
HANGE INUNDERSERVEDSTATUS.—In the case 24
of a community that qualified as underserved during a pe-25
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riod in which loans were made by a State pursuant to this 1
section and no longer qualifies as underserved, recipients 2
of loans under this section in such community— 3
(1) shall not be eligible for further loans under 4
this section; and 5
(2) may not have their loan agreements altered. 6
(k) G
ROCERYSTOREEARNINGS.—Earnings of a non-7
profit organization or municipally owned program partici-8
pant that are attributable to a loan received from a revolv-9
ing fund of a State shall be used for reinvestment into 10
the program participant or to support the continuity of 11
operations of the program participant. 12
SEC. 3. CAPITALIZATION GRANTS TO FUND STATE REVOLV-13
ING FUNDS. 14
(a) E
LIGIBILITY OFSTATE FORCAPITALIZATION 15
G
RANT.—To be eligible for a capitalization grant, a State 16
shall— 17
(1) establish a revolving fund that complies 18
with the requirements of this Act; and 19
(2) establish a process for applications and cri-20
teria for making loans from the revolving fund, sub-21
ject to the requirements in section 2(d). 22
(b) U
PONRECEIPT OFCAPITALIZATIONGRANT.— 23
Upon the receipt of a capitalization grant, a State shall 24
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deposit such capitalization grant into the revolving fund 1
of the State. 2
(c) D
ISTRIBUTION.—For a fiscal year, the Secretary 3
shall apportion amounts made available for capitalization 4
grants under this section among the States eligible under 5
subsection (a) in the ratio that— 6
(1) the population of underserved communities 7
in each State eligible under subsection (a), bears to 8
(2) the population of underserved communities 9
in all States eligible under subsection (a). 10
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 11
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 12
this Act $150,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 13
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 14
In this Act: 15
(1) C
APITALIZATION GRANT.—The term ‘‘cap-16
italization grant’’ means a grant made to a State 17
under the program. 18
(2) H
EALTHFUL FOOD .—The term ‘‘healthful 19
food’’ means food that reflects the most recent Die-20
tary Guidelines for Americans. 21
(3) G
ROCERY STORE .—The term ‘‘grocery 22
store’’ means a retail store that derives income pri-23
marily from the sale of food for home preparation 24
and consumption. 25
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(4) PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘program’’ means 1
the program described in section 2(a). 2
(5) P
ROGRAM PARTICIPANT .—The term ‘‘pro-3
gram participant’’ means an entity that has received 4
a loan under the program. 5
(6) R
EVOLVING FUND.—The term ‘‘revolving 6
fund’’ means a fund established by a State for use 7
as a depository for a capitalization grant. 8
(7) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 9
the Secretary of Agriculture. 10
(8) S
TAPLE FOOD.—The term ‘‘staple food’’ 11
has the meaning given the term in section 243(b) of 12
the of the Department of Agriculture Reorganization 13
Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6953(b)). 14
(9) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means States of 15
the Union, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 16
the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the 17
Northern Mariana Islands. 18
(10) U
NDERSERVED COMMUNITY .—The term 19
‘‘underserved community’’ has the meaning given 20
the term in section 310B(g)(9)(A) of the Consoli-21
dated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 22
1932(g)(9)(A)). 23
Æ
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