Citrus display at grocery store

Double Up Food Bucks California

Piloting a scalable model for making healthy food more affordable

As we highlighted in the ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅreport Healthy Food Within Reach, one of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is the affordability of healthy food. The Santa Clara County Healthy Food Incentive Grocery Project -- also known as Double Up Food Bucks California -- helps families overcome that barrier. This pilot project provides matching funds so that families and individuals participating in the 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.

In the long term, a permanently funded healthy food incentive program that is integrated into the CalFresh program at farmers’ markets and grocery stores statewide will help make produce more affordable for low-income families and increase the economic viability of local agricultural economies. Our Double Up Food Bucks pilot is the next step in our campaign to reach these long-term goals.

Seven grocery stores in Santa Clara County and Alameda County are participating in Double Up Food Bucks. For more details about participating store locations and how the program works, please see:

For a list of farmers’ markets and other locations where incentives are available through the Market Match program, .

This project is made possible by a grant from the , as well as the generous support of FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefits Program, Leslie Family Foundation, Santa Clara County Social Services Agency, Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Stupski Foundation, Sunlight Giving, and The Health Trust.

 

Read the results from our Double Up Food Bucks project:

 

Staff Leads: Eli Zigas, Food and Agriculture Policy Director, [email protected] and Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, Food and Agriculture Program Manager, [email protected].

Project Partners:

image
image
image
Second Harvest Food Bank
image
image

Updates

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.

Expanding Healthy Food Incentives Increases Community Wealth

News /
For years now, research has shown that healthy food incentive programs, like SPUR’s Double Up Food Bucks, improve health. What new research shows, in a more comprehensive way than ever before, is that healthy food incentive programs also improve community wealth.

The Economic Contributions of Expanding Healthy Food Incentives

Research
Broad expansions of healthy food incentives would provide powerful economic benefits – for families, grocers, and farmers, as well as more broadly among the state economies where incentive programs are expanded. The findings in this study demonstrate that state and federal policymakers would be wise to double down on their support for these programs.

One Step Closer to Expanding Healthy Food Incentives in California

News /
A new request for applications may not, on the face of it, seem like a big deal. But, when the California Department of Social Services posted its request for applications for the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Integration Pilot Project in early September, it marked an important milestone in SPUR’s long-term goal of making healthy food incentives a permanent supplement to the CalFresh/SNAP program.

2018 Was a Big Year for Federal and State Investment in Healthy Food Incentives

News /
Since 2017, SPUR's Double Up Food Bucks program has helped families eat healthier and stretch their food budgets further while also supporting California farmers. Our program’s success — and that of many others across the country — has garnered the attention and support of elected officials. Policymakers at both the federal and state level dedicated unprecedented amounts of money toward these programs in 2018.

Making Healthy Eating a Snap

Urbanist Article
SPUR's Double Up Food Bucks makes fruits and vegetables more affordable for low-income families while increasing revenue for both grocers and California farmers. After its first year in operation, survey results show that families are buying and eating more fruits and vegetables — and stretching their food budgets further — thanks to the program.

PRESS

San Francisco Chronicle | November 18, 2018

 

San Francisco Chronicle | May 21, 2018

Gilroy Morgan Hill Today | July/August 2017

 

Capital Public Radio | April 4, 2017

 

NBC/Telemundo | March 14, 2017

 

Gilroy Dispatch | March 2, 2017

 

Civil Eats | February 23, 2017

 

San Francisco Chronicle | February 21, 2017