This month, SPUR’s Food and Agriculture policy program starts a new chapter as an independent organization. Staff members Eli Zigas, Katie Ettman, and Grecia Marquez-Nieblas are leaving SPUR to launch Fullwell, a nonprofit public policy group working to put an end to food insecurity and create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. The team will continue to focus on the same campaigns it originated at SPUR, now from a new home.
Over its 13 years at SPUR, the Food and Ag program grew to encompass multiple campaigns and racked up a number of policy wins at the local, regional, and state levels. It was SPUR’s first policy program to work directly on legislation at the state level, a strategy we’ve since adopted in our Housing, Transportation, and Sustainability and Resilience work.
The Food and Ag program originated as a SPUR initiative in 2011 with a focus on urban agriculture, including the report Public Harvest and successful advocacy for legislation to support Urban Ag Incentive Zones.
Recognizing the relationship between agriculture, land use planning, and the economy, SPUR expanded the initiative to look at the impact that food choices have on preserving the Bay Area’s greenbelt, the viability of local food businesses, and the health of the environment. This became the program’s next big area of focus: articulating the value of a local food economy in the report Locally Nourished. The work led SPUR to advocate for agricultural land preservation and to become a strong supporter of successful policies to prevent sprawl in Coyote Valley, between San José and Morgan Hill. The Food and Ag program also worked with San Francisco’s Planning Department and Office of Economic and Workforce Development on SF Makers and Movers, a strategy to support the city’s food and beverage manufacturing and distribution industry.
The Locally Nourished report became the basis for the team’s current work on good food purchasing, advocating for public institutions to procure food that is local, sustainable, fair, humane, and healthy. Today 12 Bay Area institutions participate in the Good Food Purchasing program, leveraging $40 million each year in spending toward these goals.
A third report, Healthy Food Within Reach laid the groundwork for two ongoing campaigns to make healthy food more affordable for low-income Californians.
The first campaign focuses on reducing hunger, improving health, and supporting California’s agricultural economy through fruit and vegetable supplemental benefits, also known as healthy food incentives. Starting in 2017, SPUR’s Food and Ag team managed Double Up Food Bucks in Santa Clara County. This pilot project — funded by a mix of federal, county, and private foundation grants — provided coupons for matching funds so that families and individuals participating in the CalFresh food assistance program could buy even more fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. Over the program’s six years in operation, CalFresh households earned and redeemed Double Up Food Bucks coupons totaling over $1 million in free fruits and vegetables bought at local retailers.
The Double Up program evolved into the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot, replacing the paper coupon model and instead providing the matching funds on participants’ EBT cards. At its peak, the program provided $2.5 million in a month to nearly 100,000 Californians when they bought fruits and vegetables with their food assistance benefits. Due to its popularity, the pilot — which has received nearly $19 million since 2018 — ran out of funding before expected and ended last month. Fullwell is partnering with Assemblymember Alex Lee on a state budget request of $30 million to continue the program.
The second campaign to come out of Healthy Food Within Reach focuses on making medically supportive food and nutrition — like medically tailored meals and healthy food vouchers — a permanent benefit in Medi-Cal. SPUR successfully advocated for the state to adopt a Medicaid waiver to pilot and study medically supportive food and nutrition programs using public health care funding. As of September 2023, more than 29,000 Californians have accessed medically supportive food and nutrition services through the waiver. Fullwell is working with Assemblymember Mia Bonta on legislation that would make it permanent.
As the Food and Ag team transitions to become Fullwell, we wish them continued success and look forward to what they will accomplish to end food insecurity and create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system in California.