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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 the Santa Clara County Food System Initiative Workplan

Advocacy Letter /
SPUR supports the County of Santa Clara Food System Workplan: An Assessment and Roadmap for the Development of a Comprehensive Food, Restaurants, Agriculture and Health Access Initiative. The Workplan provides high level goals, recommendations and strategies to reduce food insecurity and develop a more resilient and equitable food system.

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.

SPUR Encourages Budget Committees to Support Implementation of Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition through CalAIM and Additional Produce Prescription Pilots through AB 368

Advocacy Letter /
Medically-supportive food and nutrition Interventions are a way to prevent, reverse, and manage common chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. To secure the implementation of these powerful interventions, SPUR urges the budget committees to fund the food prescription pilots outlined in AB 368 and amend the budget trailer bill language to clarify and ensure easy implementation of medically-supportive food and nutrition interventions through CalAIM.

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. The pilots will provide medically-supportive food to approximately 2,400 Medi-Cal beneficiaries who have one or more chronic health condition(s). The legislation aims to directly address racial health disparities, chronic disease, healthcare costs, and healthcare utilization among Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

California Must Seize the Opportunity to Improve Health for Less

News /
Imagine if insurers paid for the prevention— not just the treatment – of severe medical conditions. What if the health care system could help people improve their health today while also preventing diabetes or reducing the risk of heart attacks tomorrow? With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, the California Department of Health Care Services is working on doing just that.