Food and Agriculture

From 2011 to 2024, SPUR ran a program focused on food and agriculture policy. In May 2024, the program started a new chapter as Fullwell, an independent nonprofit public policy group working to put an end to food insecurity and create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. The team continues to focus on the same campaigns it originated at SPUR, only from a new home. Learn more at fullwell.us.

Double Up Food Bucks California

Piloting a scalable model for making healthy food more affordable

One of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is the affordability of healthy food. Our Double Up Food Bucks California project helps families overcome that barrier. The 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.

Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition

Expanding health care coverage to use food as medicine

The need for these food-based interventions in Medicaid has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which highlighted many health and social inequities, especially for Black and Brown communities. This pandemic emphasizes the need to use food to treat and prevent chronic disease and to decrease the effects of health disparities and food insecurity on chronic disease.

Featured Publications

Healthy Food Within Reach

Helping Bay Area residents find, afford and choose healthy food

One in 10 adults in the Bay Area struggle to find three meals a day, while more than half of adults are overweight or obese. To meet our basic needs, improve public health and enhance our quality of life, Bay Area residents must have access to healthy food. SPUR recommends 12 actions that local governments can take to improve food access in Bay Area communities.
Read the report >>

Locally Nourished

How a stronger regional food system benefits the Bay Area

The Bay Area’s food system supports our greenbelt, employs hundreds of thousands of people, and helps reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. SPUR's recommends a series of policies to help us more effectively capture the benefits of our regional food system.
Read the report >>

Public Harvest

Expanding the use of public land for urban agriculture in San Francisco

Urban agriculture has captured the imagination of San Franciscans in recent years. But the city won't realize all the benefits of this growing interest unless it provides more land, more resources and better institutional support.
Read the report >>

Updates

Good Food for All: San Francisco Hospitals and Jails Commit to Improve Food Purchasing

News / August 14, 2020

Two years after beginning an assessment of their food purchasing practices, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Public Health will start aligning these practices with standards set by the Center for Good Food Purchasing program. The goal is to leverage the agencies’ significant purchasing power by making choices that will improve the environment and human health.

SPUR Supports the Proposed Standards and Goals for Food Purchasing in San Francisco

Advocacy Letter / July 16, 2020

SPUR supports the proposed Food Purchasing Standards and Department Goals ordinance. The ordinance outlines San Francisco's hospitals and jails goals for improving food purchasing over the next five years based on the Good Food Purchasing standards.

SPUR Supports SB 822 to Make CalFresh More Accessible

Advocacy Letter / May 11, 2020

SPUR supports SB 882, which would simplify the state's CalFresh food assistance application for many older adults and people with disabilities and would increase access to CalFresh during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would eliminate burdensome ongoing reporting requirements and would ensure all applicants can complete the application and interview processes by phone, rather than having to complete the process face-to-face with staff.

How Policymakers Can Keep Food Flowing and on the Table During This Pandemic

News / April 6, 2020

Only a couple of weeks into shelter-in-place orders, COVID-19's impact on the economy is crashing down on us. To keep food flowing and avoid historic levels of hunger, SPUR recommends 14 steps that policymakers at the local, state and federal level can, and should, take immediately.

SPUR Comments on Proposed Changes to Medi-Cal

Advocacy Letter / March 16, 2020

The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released a draft application to the federal government for exemptions to Medicaid rules to pilot new and innovative strategies for providing healthcare. SPUR supports long-term funding for healthy food incentive programs and with more than 95 additional organizations urges DHCS to include food and nutrition services into the state’s application.

SPUR Opposes the Proposed Revision to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Advocacy Letter / December 3, 2019

The Federal Government's proposed changes to SNAP state heating and cooling utility allowances could result in more than 542,000 people in California losing access to food assistance. It would also directly, and negatively, impact the low-income families and grocery stores participating in SPUR's Double Up Food Bucks Program. SPUR supports maximizing enrollment in federally funded food assistance programs.