Food and Agriculture
Our goal: Create healthy, just and sustainable food systems, and put an end to food insecurity.
SPUR’s Five-Year Priorities:
• Make healthy food easier to find, afford and choose.
• Preserve agricultural land and reduce the food systems’ environmental impact.
• Support Good Food Purchasing practices, access to farmland and industrial land for farmers and producers, and quality jobs in the food industry.
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.
SPUR Report
Healthy Food Within Reach
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.
SPUR Report
Locally Nourished
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.
SPUR Report
Public Harvest
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.
Ongoing Initiative
Double Up Food Bucks California
Double Up Food Bucks California 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.
Updates and Events
Regional Challenges Need a Regional Approach
News /SPUR’s recently released Regional Strategy outlines a vision for the Bay Area of 2070 as an equitable, sustainable and prosperous region. The strategy provides a roadmap for building that future and centers deep regional cooperation as critical to transformational change. To celebrate the release of the project, four Bay Area civic leaders gathered on May 13 to talk about the role of regionalism in advancing a future where everyone thrives.
SPUR Supports “Food for All” Budget Investment to Expand Access to the California Food Assistance Program
Policy LetterSPUR supports an investment in the 2021-2022 Budget Act to create an equitable state food assistance system that does not discriminate on the basis of immigration status by modernizing the California Food Assistance Program.
SPUR Supports Free School Meals for All
Policy LetterThe 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
Policy LetterSPUR 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
Policy LetterThis 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.
SPUR Recommends Adopting the Soda Tax Community Advisory Board Budget Recommendations
Policy LetterSPUR recommends adopting the Soda Tax Community Advisory Board Budget recommendations in a full letter requesting Mayor Schaaf adopt the recommendations of the Sugar Sweetened Beverage Community Advisory Board into the upcoming budget.