Fighting against changes to SNAP/CalFresh
/In February 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a proposed rule that would tighten work requirements for Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs). The USDA’s own impact assessment determined that the rule change would result in over 700,000 Americans losing SNAP/CalFresh federal food assistance benefits. Local estimates show that 25,000 San Diegans are at risk of losing benefits.
What we did in 2019:
San Diego Hunger Coalition (SDHC) and its over 100 partners immediately launched into action to oppose the unnecessary and harmful rule change. Local and state agencies, including SDHC, analyzed the proposed rule in comparison to available research to understand its impact. In San Diego County, it was discovered, this rule would result in 10% of CalFresh recipients losing their benefits, or an estimated 25,000 people.
A 2019 food assistance landscape assessment conducted by SDHC revealed that CalFresh accounts for nearly 60% of all food assistance meals in San Diego County. Hunger relief supported by private charity (philanthropy) accounts for only 9%. This means that local food banks and pantries would need to raise millions of additional dollars to increase charitable food distributions by more than 50% to make up for the impact of the ABAWD rule change.
Armed with data and research, SDHC and the Hunger Advocacy Network (HAN) sent out a Call-to-Action [link to Call-to-Action page] for people to submit public comments in opposition to the proposed new rule. Organizations across the U.S. did the same and collectively submitted over 100,000 comments. Since the USDA is required by law to review and respond to each unique comment, this effectively delayed the rule 8 months.
Unfortunately, the rule is still scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2020.
Since the publishing of the new rule, 14 states, including California, have sued the USDA to stop its implementation.
What we’ll be doing in 2020:
Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, SDHC will lead collaborative preparation to minimize the harmful effects of this new rule, as we have done with new state and federal regulations on CalFresh eligibility for college students (link to college student toolkit), SSI recipients (link to SSI page) and immigrants (link to Public Charge page).
Our goal is to keep at least half of San Diego County’s vulnerable ABAWD population (an estimated 12,500 people) from losing their CalFresh benefits through the following actions:
1. We will work with local, state and federal partners to gather as much information as possible and create easy-to-understand guidelines for our partners and County workers.
2. We will educate government, nonprofits, and community-based organizations about what to expect and how to respond to ABAWDs who have lost their benefits.
3. We will work with the County of San Diego to ensure the new rule is implemented correctly to maintain benefits for all who are still eligible, and to connect people at risk of losing benefits to available employment and training.
4. We will create an online platform and toolkit where organizations and clients can go for information, resources, and updates (expected to go live in March).
5. We will provide advice for clients and agencies who run into barriers.
6. We will lead the collaborative action of San Diego’s hunger relief sector to make sure everyone in need has enough to eat and is getting the type of food assistance that is right for them.
As a community, we need to be ready to help those affected by this new rule when it goes into effect. San Diego Hunger Coalition provides the wide-lens view needed to ensure that everyone who needs food assistance in San Diego County gets it in a timely and dignified manner.
