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
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.
SPUR Recommends Adopting the Soda Tax Advisory Committee Budget Recommendations
Policy LetterSPUR recommends adopting the Soda Tax Advisory Committee Budget recommendations in a letter requesting Mayor Breed adopt the recommendations of the Sugary Drink Tax Advisory Committee (SDDTAC) into the upcoming budget.
SPUR Supports the Santa Clara County Food System Initiative Workplan
Policy LetterSPUR 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
Policy LetterMedically-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.