Double Up Food Bucks California logoAs we highlighted in the SPUR report Healthy Food Within Reach, one of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is the affordability of healthy food. The Santa Clara County Healthy Food Incentive Grocery Project -- also known as Double Up Food Bucks California -- helps families overcome that barrier. This pilot project provides matching funds so that families and individuals participating in the CalFresh program can buy even more fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. For example, a shopper who spends $10 of CalFresh benefits on California-grown fruits and vegetables at participating stores will get an extra $10 to spend on any fresh produce in the store.

In the long term, a permanently funded healthy food incentive program that is integrated into the CalFresh program at farmers’ markets and grocery stores statewide will help make produce more affordable for low-income families and increase the economic viability of local agricultural economies. Our Double Up Food Bucks pilot is the next step in our campaign to reach these long-term goals.

Seven grocery stores in Santa Clara County and Alameda County are participating in Double Up Food Bucks. For more details about participating store locations and how the program works, please see: www.DoubleUpCA.org

For a list of farmers’ markets and other locations where incentives are available through the Market Match program, visit the Market Match website.

This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant Program, as well as the generous support of FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefits Program, Leslie Family Foundation, Santa Clara County Social Services Agency, Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Stupski Foundation, Sunlight Giving, and The Health Trust.

 

Read the results from our Double Up Food Bucks project:

 

Staff Leads: Eli Zigas, Food and Agriculture Policy Director, [email protected] and Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, Food and Agriculture Program Manager, [email protected].

Project Partners:

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Second Harvest Food Bank
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Updates

A Technological Leap Makes Expanding Healthy Food Incentive Programs Easier

News /
California has taken a big step forward in scaling up healthy food incentive programs: CalFresh participants can now get bonus dollars from their healthy food purchases electronically credited to their benefits card. That technological leap happened because of legislation SPUR co-sponsored. Now SPUR is working to overcome the remaining challenge to enlarging healthy food incentive programs: insufficient funding.

Averting a Worsening Hunger Crisis Hinges on Making Temporary Benefits Programs Permanent

News /
Recipients of CalFresh food assistance are about to take a big hit: emergency allotments authorized during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire just as food costs are at historic highs. SPUR is working to make temporary food access programs permanent and has just launched a statewide project institutionalizing supplemental benefits by making them directly reimbursable to recipients’ EBT cards.

Our Bill to Make Healthy Food More Affordable Died in Committee. Here’s How Far We Got.

News /
Earlier this year, the California Legislature considered a proposal aimed at making healthy food more affordable for Californians with low incomes. The proposal — introduced by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula, co-sponsored by SPUR and Nourish California, and backed by a broad coalition — would have provided a penny-for-penny rebate for people buying California-grown fresh fruits and vegetables with their CalFresh dollars at participating retailers. Though the proposal didn’t pass this year, the momentum behind it demonstrated strong legislative interest in the idea, bipartisan support and positive response from people who see the value in expanding an existing program that reduces hunger, improves health and supports California’s agricultural economy.

SPUR and Others to Pilot New Technology for Making Healthy Food More Affordable

News /
California has reached a milestone in its effort to make healthy, California-grown food more affordable for low-income residents. The California Department of Social Services has awarded contracts to SPUR and two other nonprofits for pilot projects that will test new technology for providing healthy food incentives.

Double Up Food Bucks Stood Tall in 2020

News /
SPUR's healthy food incentive program reflected the difficulties that thousands in the Bay Area faced in making ends meet during the pandemic. Double Up Food Bucks addressed the soaring demand for food assistance throughout the pandemic, and, alongside efforts by the federal government, non-profit civic engineers, and the state government, supported low-income Californians by increasing their food budgets at participating stores in Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

Expanding Healthy Food Incentives Increases Community Wealth

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For years now, research has shown that healthy food incentive programs, like SPUR’s Double Up Food Bucks, improve health. What new research shows, in a more comprehensive way than ever before, is that healthy food incentive programs also improve community wealth.

PRESS

Hidden Hunger: The Quest to Provide Healthy Solutions

San Francisco Chronicle | November 18, 2018

 

California Could Make Food More Affordable and Help Farmers; Here’s How

San Francisco Chronicle | May 21, 2018

Gilory's Man in the House: Jimmy Panetta

Gilroy Morgan Hill Today | July/August 2017

 

Bay Area Pilot Program Makes Produce Less Costly For Low-Income Families

Capital Public Radio | April 4, 2017

 

Double Up Food Bucks on Comunidad del Valle

NBC/Telemundo | March 14, 2017

 

Buy Local, Get Paid

Gilroy Dispatch | March 2, 2017

 

Doubling Up Healthy, Local Produce at California Groceries

Civil Eats | February 23, 2017

 

Extra Benefits for Buying Produce Under Food-Stamp Pilot Program

San Francisco Chronicle | February 21, 2017