Best Practices

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH BEST PRACTICE

Healthy & Sustainable Food

San Francisco, CA

Purpose

To support the local agriculture economy and reduce negative impacts from food production, distribution, and consumption.

Outcomes

• 47 City departments have provided plans and updates for implementing the Directive
• 13 new sites for urban food producing gardens have been identified.
• The San Francisco International Airport became the first airport in the country to recruit Slow Food vendors, offering wholesome food grown locally and prepared in a healthful manner.
• To focus on implementing nutrition guidelines across meal programs funded by the City, the Department of Public Health has funded a consultant dietician to help shelters review menus, budgets, food service operations, and food safety
• Permits for mobile food vendors now reflect a preference for those that offer healthy and sustainably produced food
• The Department of the Environment developed a listserv to coordinate communications and information sharing among groups engaged in urban agriculture
• The Department of Public health created the annual Restaurant Recognition program, where one restaurant in each district is rewarded for demonstrating innovative cuisine, environmental conservation, use of local and regional food, improved food access and nutrition in underserved communities, community work, labor practices, and nutrition and high food safety standards
• The city code for farmers market was revised to ensure equitable access to local food
• The San Francisco Food Stamp Program has modernized its food stamp office in order to maximize food stamp enrollment, which has increased by over 25% since 2009.

Background & Summary

In June 2009, the Mayor issued the Healthy and Sustainable Food Directive. Serving as the first phase of implementation of a local and sustainable food policy, the directive requires:

• Eight major departments to conduct audits of land under their jurisdiction to identify land suitable for gardening
• New health and sustainability measures to be applied to food vendors under city permits
• A “healthy meetings policy” for all City meetings, and to purchase only healthy and locally produced food
• Creating a new ordinance to require all food purchased by the City to be locally grown (within a 200-mile radius) using sustainable methods

The primary overseers of policy execution are the San Francisco Planning Department, Department of Public Health, and Department of the Environment.

Future, more general expectations incorporated in the policy are the improvement of healthy food distribution to low-income neighborhoods and residents; the promotion of urban agriculture through community, backyard, rooftop, and school gardens; the creation of green jobs and support of local food business; and the advancement of public education concerning healthy and local food choices.

Public Outreach & Education:The Mayor brought together a group of 50 City officials, environmentalists, and regional food activists. As the Urban-Rural Roundtable, this group’s primary role is devising future recommendations for the success of a Local and Healthy Food Procurement Policy. Four committees were formed – Place-based Agriculture, Aquaculture and Cultural Values; Resources and Environment; Healthy Food Access; and Agricultural Economic Viability – in order to develop ideas for a sustainable food system.

Additionally, a Food Policy Council was created in order to assimilate the Executive Directive’s immediate and specific goals with those of past legislation. This Council consists of the 8 participating City departments and representatives of urban agriculture, nutrition expertise, food retail, the Food Security Task Force, Southeast Food Access Working Group, Tenderloin Hunger Task Force, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Public Support & Opposition: The Mayor partnered with local food advocacy non-profit, Roots of Change, to form the Urban-Rural Roundtable. Additional support has come from the following organizations within the San Francisco region and California:

• Local Foods Wheel
• Om Organics
• Community Alliance with Family Farmers
• Center for Ecoliteracy
• BANPAC: Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative
• Californians for GE Free Agriculture
• The Guide to Funding Health Food Retail Outlets

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Last updated June 12, 2013

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