In an effort to address food deserts, Illinois doles out first round of state grocery funding. An Austin grocer is among the recipients.

Illinois announced the first recipients of grant funding Thursday under a new state program intended to bring grocery stores to food deserts. The state announced a total of $7.9 million in grants slated to go toward new stores in areas that lack access to fresh groceries and to existing stores that applied for funding for equipment upgrades.

Among the recipients of funding for new stores is Forty Acres Fresh Market, an Austin grocer that now operates via pop-ups and as a delivery service.

The state awarded $750,000 to Forty Acres for its new bricks-and-mortar store at 5713 W. Chicago Ave.

Reached by phone while running a produce stand at an Austin farmers market Thursday, Forty Acres founder Liz Abunaw described the state grant program as a “game changer” because unlike many grants which must go toward construction and renovation costs, the program allows funds to go toward first-year operational costs such as labor and inventory.

Abunaw said construction on the Forty Acres bricks-and-mortar location was nearing completion, and that she hoped the store could open by early 2025.

The other new stores slated to receive funding under the program are Rancho Supermarket in Rockford, Our Market At the Plaza Cooperative in downstate Carlinville and Harvest Supermarket in Peoria. The grants received by those supermarkets range from about $1.6 million to $2.4 million.

Seven existing grocery stores, none of which are located in Chicago, received grant funding for energy-efficient equipment upgrades. Those stores include the Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana and Riverside Foods in Riverside.

The $20 million Illinois Grocery Initiative, signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker last year, was intended to help address food access issues in rural and urban areas.

In a statement Thursday, Pritzker described the grocery initiative as part of the state’s “mission to end food deserts in Illinois and provide economic and community development for towns and neighborhoods across the state.”

In Chicago, food access issues and grocery store closures on the South and West sides have vexed city leaders for years.

The city said it plans to apply for funds from the state program to help open a municipally owned grocery store, a project Mayor Brandon Johnson first floated more than a year ago. Proponents of the plan have suggested a city-owned store could remedy the problem of private operators abdicating from the South and West sides. The city did not apply for the first round of state funding but plans to apply for the second round, spokesperson Ronnie Reese said.

In August, after a feasibility study found a municipally owned store was “necessary, feasible and implementable” in Chicago, the mayor’s policy chief S. Mayumi “Umi” Grigsby said internal and external working groups would help finalize proposals for a city-owned store or stores.

The study, created for the city by researchers at the economic development consultancy HR&A, left many possibilities for how such a store would be funded and operated on the table, but did suggest the city not attempt to operate a store itself and rather partner with a nonprofit, for-profit or cooperative partner to run iday-to-day operations.

The second round of funding under the state grocery program will be open through early December, state officials said Thursday. Grants are capped at $2.4 million per project, with a total of $11 million in funding still available.