Healthy Food Access for All Americans Act
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow tax credits and grants for activities that provide access to healthy food in food deserts.
A food desert must be more than 1 mile away from a grocery store in a metropolitan area or more than 10 miles away outside of a metropolitan area. It must also meet population requirements and have either a poverty rate of at least 20% or a median family income that does not exceed 80% of the median for the state or metropolitan area.
For entities that are certified by the Department of the Treasury as special access food providers using specified criteria, the bill allows tax credits for operating a new grocery store or renovating an existing grocery store in a food desert. The bill also authorizes grants for a portion of: (1) the construction costs of building a permanent food bank in a food desert, and (2) the annual operating costs of temporary access merchants (mobile markets, farmers markets, and food banks).
Treasury, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (USDA), must annually allocate the tax credits and grants to special access food providers. Grants authorized by this bill are not considered gross income for tax purposes.
The bill also amends the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 to require USDA to update the Food Access Research Atlas at least annually to account for food retailers that are placed in service during that year.