Photo of the San Francisco skyline with a rooftop mural in the foreground.

Food and Agriculture

Strengthening the Bay Area's urban and regional food systems

Photo by Michael Waldrep


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.

Healthy Food Project

Read more about the project

 

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.

Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition

Read more about the project

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

SPUR Supports Free School Meals for All

Advocacy Letter /
The Free School Meals for All Act would make big strides towards reducing hunger while also supporting the local food economy in California by providing two free meals to any student in California who wanted them. SPUR supports SB 364 and respectfully request that the legislature augment what the governor has already proposed in the May Revise to fully fund the programs outlined in the legislation.

SPUR Supports AB 368, Which Would Establish Three Food Prescription Pilots

Advocacy Letter /
SPUR supports Assembly Bill 368, which would establish food prescription pilots in partnership with Medi-Cal managed care plans in three California counties. By investing one-time funds in prevention California can improve patient outcomes, reduce health care costs and build the system to lock in these benefits over the long-term.

SPUR Supports Emergency Food Assistance for All

Advocacy Letter /
This bill would provide $600 of one-time emergency food assistance for low-income persons negatively impacted by COVID-19, regardless of legal status. The bill also requires the Department of Social Services (CDSS) to conduct a study to inform a set of recommendations for a permanent food assistance program that meets the needs of all food insecure Californians.