Quality Jobs Fund Invests $5 Million in California Central Valley
The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and the New World Foundation have announced a $5 million investment in the Central Valley Fund Capital Partners in support of quality job creation and small businesses in California's underserved Central Valley region.
The investment is the first made by the $100 million Quality Jobs Fund, which the bank seeded in 2017 with the goal of addressing inequality through efforts to facilitate quality job creation, finance small business expansion, and support job training in underserved communities in its three-state district of Arizona, California, and Nevada and elsewhere. Administered by NWF, the fund is aimed at improving the wealth-building potential of working families, helping generate future homebuyers, and serving as a catalyst for sustainable, long-term community development program. To that end, the fund invests in organizations that provide debt or equity financing to small businesses to support business expansion and job creation and those with a track record of preparing individuals for higher-paying quality jobs through job training and upskilling.
The Central Valley Fund, an investment firm based in Davis, California, will use the $5 million to provide flexible capital to companies like Initiative Foods, an organic baby food manufacturer, to help them create and sustain quality jobs. "Give people a chance," said Antonia Flores, a high school dropout with four daughters who began working at Initiative Foods as an inventory clerk earning $10 an hour, got her GED and took accounting classes, and now earns $26 an hour as an inventory accounting supervisor. "It's hard for small businesses to get help. There are a lot of people who have dreams, not just for themselves, but for their employees. Helping small businesses means helping the communities they are in."
"The U.S. economy struggles to create quality jobs that offer wages high enough to allow working families to purchase homes in safe, nurturing communities where they can raise their families," said Greg Seibly, president and CEO of FHLBank San Francisco. "FHLBank San Francisco began this process two years ago with research on what strategies best fuel successful job creation and small business expansion. It's exciting to move ahead and start supporting programs and seeing results that will enhance the quality of life for working families."
(Photo credit: Quality Jobs Fund)