Hunger Advocacy Network's 2021 Legislative Priorities
/Legislative advocacy is one of the most effective ways to implement lasting change by becoming an active part of American democracy. Below are easy-read overviews of the 2021 state legislative priorities.
Questions? Contact Mauricio Medina, Public Affairs Manager, at mauricio@sdhunger.org.
SB 107 (Wiener) Simplified CalFresh Application for Older Adults & Telephonic Signature
Background: CalFresh (known nationally as SNAP or food stamps) is one of our most effective tools for combatting food insecurity. The application process can be unnecessarily burdensome, especially for older adults and individuals with a disability who have no income. The application for CalFresh is a difficult 16-page document. Regular reporting requirements, including signatures, often lead to individuals losing access to benefits even though they remain eligible. San Diego County is one of the few counties in California that allows for telephonic signatures. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the application process was made easier to accommodate a 300% increase in applicants. Many of the temporary COVID-19 policy changes are included in this bill for long-term policy and have proven successful.
California participates in the Elderly Simplified Application Project (ESAP) which allows States to streamline the application process for CalFresh/SNAP. However, California has not participated in the parts of this program that allows for user-friendly applications for seniors and the waiving of semi-annual reports for ESAP households.*
*An ESAP household is one in which all members are elderly or disabled and do not have any income.
What This Bill Does: This bill would require the California Department of Social Services to develop a streamlined, user-centered CalFresh application for older adults (60+ years of age) and for people with disabilities. This bill would also expand the opportunity for individuals to complete the full CalFresh application and renewal process, including the signing of verification documents, over the phone. We anticipate this bill supporting the more than 200,000 older adults across San Diego County that are eligible for the CalFresh Program, of which only 20% currently participate due to administrative barriers.
Impact: This bill has not yet been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
SB 464 (Hurtado) Food4ALL
Background: CalFresh (SNAP) is the largest, most impactful food assistance program. It is funded entirely by the federal government through the United States Department of Agriculture. Through CalFresh, qualified low-income individuals and households are provided with a special ATM-like card that may be used at grocery stores to purchase authorized food products. By federal law, CalFresh benefits are not available to undocumented immigrants. However, California provides state-funded food assistance through the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to a limited group of qualified non-citizens who are not eligible for federal food assistance solely based on their immigration status.
What This Bill Does: Currently, many immigrants excluded from CalFresh and the state-funded California Food Assistance Program (CFAP). Federal laws exclude undocumented immigrants, DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and certain visa holders from CalFresh. This bill would expand CFAP eligibility to anyone excluded from CalFresh solely due to their immigration status.
Impact: The financial impact is estimated to have one-time and ongoing costs relative to creating and administering the program and benefits. These costs are estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.
AB 221 (Santiago) Emergency Food Assistance
Background: In San Diego County, 1 in 3 people are experiencing or at risk of food insecurity. This number is an increase from the pre-COVID estimate of 1 in 4. Studies show that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are inordinately affected by food insecurity. Further studies indicate that individuals who receive their income from the informal economy have been disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn associated with the pandemic. This includes farmworkers, domestic employees, and undocumented residents. Many of these individuals were excluded from COVID-19 stimulus payments and emergency support based solely on their immigration status.
What This Bill Does: AB 221 would provide emergency food assistance to immigrants adversely affected by COVID-19, and excluded from federal aid due to their immigration status, in the form of a prepaid electronic card preloaded with $600 to purchase food. Distribution of these benefits would be conducted by a contracted Feeding America partner state organization or nonprofit. This bill would also require the California Department of Social Services to provide recommendations for a permanent food assistance program.
Impact: The estimated costs are currently unknown, but likely in the high tens of millions to the low hundreds of millions of dollars. California Department of Social Services indicates that it would need approximately 15% of funds allocated for this program for administrative costs.
SB 364 (Skinner) Universal Free Meals in California Schools
Background: In San Diego County, 2 in 5 children are experiencing or at risk of food insecurity. For many families with low incomes, the Free and Reduced Price Meal Program, which provides free or low-cost school meals to children in need, is crucial to meeting their monthly food budget. Unfortunately, not all families who need this vital food assistance have access to it, and many miss eligibility by a slim margin. While some school districts are able to serve free meals to every enrolled student through existing federal programming, this option is either unavailable or financially unviable for many districts.
What This Bill Does: SB 364 aims to end childhood hunger in California by 1) Establishing the California Universal School Meal Program that will allow free breakfast and lunches to be served to all students ages 18 and under, regardless of the pupil’s eligibility for free or reduced-price meals, and 2) Establish the Better Out of School Time (BOOST) Nutrition Program to provide EBT cards during regularly scheduled school breaks or closures during disasters. It is estimated that this bill would offer consistent nutrition to 250,000 students in San Diego County.
Impact:
Universal Free Meals: The estimated cost for providing school meals to every student in California is not yet determined. Not all schools participate in the federal school meal program, but providing universal free meals at the schools that do will result in costs of $391 million for the School Lunch Program and $251 million for the School Breakfast Program each year. There are 517 schools currently not participating. Should they elect to do so, the costs could increase substantially.
BOOST Nutrition Program: CDSS indicates the annual costs of this program could potentially be in the billions of dollars. This cost includes automation of the program as well as the actual benefits to the students during school closures.
Additional Critical State Hunger Relief Bills
AB 508 (Rivas & Gonzalez) Covering the Cost of Reduced-Price Meals
Federal guidelines, which determine reduced-price lunch eligibility, fail to accurately capture the financial stress poor families experience in California. Currently, four out of ten Californians are living at or near the federal poverty line. AB 508 would require the state to provide sufficient funding to cover the cost of providing meals free of charge to pupils from households that would otherwise be required to provide a copayment for school meals. We anticipate this would help over 43,000 students in San Diego who currently participate in the reduced-price meal program.
California State Budget
Fund Food with Care:
More than 3 in 5 California families with young children have run out of food in the last twelve months. In San Diego County, 2 in 5 children are experiencing or at risk of food insecurity. California’s subsidized childcare programs, however, do not have enough funding to pay for food and need additional support to continue meal service during the pandemic. Funding childcare meal service is a preventative measure to ensure that children’s most basic needs are met during this crisis and to support the stability of the childcare system.
Budget Action: State leaders should make critical investments to support childcare meal service as part of COVID-19 relief and ongoing efforts to help stabilize the state’s childcare infrastructure by securing funding in the state’s 2021-2022 budget.
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