Alameda County Food Sovereignty Roundtable

The issue

Since the federal passage of H.R. 1 in July 2025 and the CalFresh freeze in November 2025, the County continues to navigate CalFresh work requirements and noncitizen eligibility changes affecting thousands of neighbors. The County and state are also now covering hundreds of millions of dollars more of our share of CalFresh administrative costs (previously paid by the federal government). 

Why this matters

Now is the time to recognize the urgent need for healthy and culturally appropriate food access across our County: while lifting up existing and emerging efforts to work upstream and build freedom from hunger and galvanize community power around food and nutrition 💪🏽

Did you know?: 

  • Unhealthy diet is the #1 driver of mortality in the U.S., including through elevated risks of heart disease and anxiety outcomes among other indicators
  • 4 in 10 adults in the US have two or more chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and more – costing us trillions of dollars per year in health care costs
  • The Recipe4Health “Food as Medicine” food interventions program has yielded improved health behaviors, mental health, and food security and reduced chronic conditions: resulting in reduced healthcare costs. 
  • Expanding the Food is Medicine program generates large economic gains (including job growth) and helps build strong, durable local food systems such as revenue-building for small and mid-sized family farms
  • Food keeps people housed: we and CBOs continue to hear that the “rent eats first” and we know that about 1 in 4 Bay Area tenants pay more than 50% of their income on rent

Food is medicine. Food helps people stay housed. Food connects us and builds power. 

Who’s leading the charge to cultivate food sovereignty

Since September 2025, our District 5 Office has been convening the Alameda County Food Sovereignty Roundtable – which has connected over 100 County, City, public agency and nonprofit partners under the umbrella of our codeveloped mission – to strengthen interdependence, impact, resilience and mutual care across our local food system. By “food system,” we mean every part of the local economy which includes food production, procurement, recovery and distribution. 

Together, dozens of Roundtable partners have meetings almost weekly to strategize emergency rapid response and home delivery, workforce development, the food supply chain, and how to keep advocating for more public and private resources for this work while aligning on our vision for food sovereignty. In this vision, food, health and housing solutions are closely intertwined: and people most impacted by hunger drive long-term systemic transformation to not only distribute urgently needed food in the interim, but also continuously build health and nutrition for everyone in our community to be free from hunger.

What’s Food Sovereignty?

In the short term, food system partners recover, procure, and distribute emergency food charity. Our shared Food Sovereignty vision looks like long-term resilience, public land for public good, and systemic transformation centering…

🌱 Land Back

✊🏽 people over profit – recognizing communities historically disenfranchised by food apartheid

🫂 community self-determination through local growing, processing, and distribution; ensuring access to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sustainable methods

Need CalFresh work or volunteer hours?

Check out bit.ly/CalFreshworkhours if you need to fulfill work requirements. 

Get connected

This work is evolving, and all who are interested in being a part of it are welcome to sign up for updates and meeting invites at bit.ly/acfoodsov.

Learn more by checking out the following links: