PCV InSight’s impact evaluation team recently traveled to Los Angeles for The California FreshWorks Fund First Annual Summit – a convening of investors, store owners, partners, community members, and other stakeholders involved in the fund. PCV InSight will be assessing the economic and social impacts of FreshWorks, an initiative of The California Endowment, as part of a two year long evaluation examining two stores financed by FreshWorks.
PCV InSight has partnered with other leading health research organizations for the evaluation that will be assessing the specific health impacts resulting from FreshWorks. The team of researchers is led by The Sarah Samuels Center for Public Health Research & Evaluation and is also comprised of The Food Trust and The University of Pennsylvania.
The California FreshWorks Fund is a $250+ million investment fund created to finance new and upgraded grocery stores, plus other forms of healthy food retail and distribution in California’s underserved communities. FreshWorks was created as a market-oriented response to the limited availability of healthy food in many California communities, sometimes dubbed “food deserts”, which contributes to chronic disease and other public health problems. Does this concept sound familiar? You’re right! It is a perfect example of the impact economy – making investments to produce financial and measurable social returns.
PCV InSight Director, Ben Thornley (pictured above), shared PCV InSight’s role in the evaluation and discussed the importance of tracking the social and economic impacts of FreshWorks. PCV’s impact evaluation team does this type of work for some of the most prominent investment and philanthropic institutions in the United States. Learn more here.