2019 Policy Preview

CalFresh for SSI recipients starting in June 2019!

This year California won a historic victory for the 1.3 million Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients in our state. Starting in June of 2019, SSI recipients will be able to apply for CalFresh. Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Alliance to Transform CalFresh webinar on December 12, addressing this policy change. If you weren’t able to join, you can  watch the webinar or read the PPT presentation to catch up on the updates

California Departments of Social Services and partners across the state have been hard at work preparing for this change, and we encourage you to do the same with your county administrations. If you haven’t already, work with your local CalFresh partners to set up a meeting with your county’s CalFresh leadership to begin discussions about how you’re all going to work together to ensure that this opportunity is maximized for the newly CalFresh eligible people in your communities. For updates, resources, and information about upcoming webinars, check out our SSI cash-out page on the CAFB website.

2019 State budget advocacy preview

It’s that time of year again! On January 10, 2019, Governor-Elect Newsom will publish his first budget, which will kick off the six-month state budget process. This year we will be advocating on behalf of our member food banks for $24.5 million for ongoing CalFood funding, and $19.5 million for one-time food bank capacity grants. The CalFood figure of $24.5 million was developed in close collaboration with several members, and we will also seek to raise the storage and distribution rate from 10% to 15%. The $19.5 million for food bank capacity grants is the remaining funding request from $25 million that was unfulfilled in the 2018 budget. 

Once we have finalized fact-sheets and materials, we will be posting them to our In the coming weeks, if you have meetings with any of your Legislators, please remind them how critical this funding is for our communities and ask them to support our full budget request.CalFood and budget advocacy.

Reminder: AB 2178 becomes law on January 1^st

AB 2178 (Limon) becomes law on January 1, 2019. This law will require that all “Limited Service Charitable Feeding Providers” come under the local Environmental Health Department (EDH). Thanks to substantial input provided by CAFB members in this negotiation process, agencies under MOU with a food bank and only distributing groceries will not have to register directly with EHD’s. Instead, food banks will provide a list of such agencies to the EHD, with no fees charged.

Please read further details and instructions for next steps in this document. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Becky Gershon (becky@cafoodbanks.org) with any questions or concerns about SSI cash-out, the state budget, or AB 2178.

Photo by Christopher Padalinski