California Food Program in Danger

A California food program for needy families is in danger as funds are set to expire in June.

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project gives low-income residents an instant rebate whenever they purchase fruits and vegetables, allowing even the most financially vulnerable to have access to healthy food across the state.

Anyone who qualifies for CalFresh, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) elsewhere in the country, can earn the rebate when buying fresh fruits and vegetables with their CalFresh benefits at participating retailers, and the state says that more than 43,000 residents benefit from it.

But this all could end as soon as April as the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project is scheduled to run out of funding. The larger CalFresh will continue beyond this.

Californians from 44 of 58 counties have received rebates from the fruit and vegetable pilot project, which is currently available at 100 grocery stores across the state.

Initially, the program was proposed by California politicians with a proposed budget of $95 million, but it only received $9.65 million in funding. That means all the money available will be gone by June, which is also the end of the fiscal year.

"Time is working against us; the money is burning so fast," Eli Zigas, food and agriculture policy director at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), told L.A. Taco.

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project has been relatively simple for residents who meet its criteria. They merely swipe their EBT card, which then gives them an instant rebate of up to $60 for all qualifying food purchases each month.

California has a significant food insecurity problem, with UCLA's Center for Health Policy and Research finding 3.4 million residents went hungry in 2021, and 39 percent of adults could not afford enough food for themselves.

Meanwhile, U.S. Census numbers indicate 8.8 million Californians could be dealing with food insecurity, which is highly concentrated among Black and Hispanic communities. The California Association of Food Banks found 46 percent of Black adults couldn't afford food.

SPUR and Nourish California have asked for the California state and assembly budget subcommittees to allocate additional funds to keep the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project for at least another year.

For July, the ask is for $30 million. In February, CalFresh customers used $1.9 million in rebates, and the number of Californians using the service continues to grow.

"If additional funding is not provided in the FY 24-25 budget, the program will run out of funds this summer and tens of thousands of Californians across the state will have less money to put food on their tables," SPUR and Nourish California wrote in a letter.

State Assemblyman Alex Lee has said he already plans to propose two bills to support the fruit and vegetable program's funding.

"This is a very efficient way to deliver fresh produce and nourish families in need," Lee, a Democrat representing Alameda and Santa Clara counties, said, as reported by L.A. Taco.

As part of the bills, Lee said he will be asking for $30 million to keep the program afloat from July 2024 and July 2025.

It could be especially meaningful for residents as they continue to navigate upticks in grocery prices.

Food price inflation has been up 2.2 percent over the last year, while food away from home surged by 4.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Inflation has made pretty much everything more expensive, especially food," California resident Alan Chang, who is also the founder and president of Vested Title & Escrow, told Newsweek. "We see this impact in our daily lives with dine-in and fast-food options as well as at the grocery store. It is not surprising that funding for fresh grocery items is shrinking fast."

Many factors are at play in what is actually driving the food inflation, and many economists do not anticipate the prices coming down any time soon.

"With increasing prices at the checkout counter, that brings home less and less for the consumer in the form of food into the household," Kevin Thompson, a financial planner and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. "Rising prices have been sparked not only by just natural inflationary pressures, but also by the lack of labor supply to produce the output to curb demand, which in turn has made programs like this necessary to curtail the rising prices."

While many other states only offer the federal SNAP, California's CalFresh rebates instead incentivize healthier food choices and a dollar-for-dollar rebate on the food you choose to buy.

"Programs like California's are exactly what is needed to promote healthier lifestyles, especially for economically distressed families that statistically speaking deal with health-related issues due to poor eating habits more than any other group," Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the state of Tennessee, told Newsweek. "The problem is healthier food isn't always cheaper. Foods high in sugar and fat have been more popular among those getting economic assistance because of their lower price and ease of access."

This means if the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project loses all funding, tens of thousands of low-income California citizens will be impacted.

"If the CalFresh (Fruit and Vegetable) program is lost, it will definitely impact the individuals that are in need of fresh food and produce," Thompson said. "The unfortunate reality is that America is filled with options that are very unhealthy and also very cheap. People may be forced to either eat less or move to alternative options that are worse off for their health."

Update 4/9/24, 08:37 a.m. ET: This article was updated for clarity over CalFresh and the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project.