Newsom deploys National Guard for California food bank surge

The shutdown has already forced approximately 150,000 military and federal workers in San Diego County alone to seek food assistance.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — California Governor Gavin Newsom is deploying the National Guard to help food banks manage a surge in demand caused by the federal government shutdown, which threatens to cut off CalFresh benefits for hundreds of thousands of residents starting November 1.

The shutdown has already forced approximately 150,000 military and federal workers in San Diego County alone to seek food assistance. When CalFresh benefits expire on November 1, an additional 400,000 people in San Diego County could lose their assistance, according to Casey Castillo, CEO of the San Diego Food Bank.

“We’re really concerned about what it means for our families in November,” Castillo said. “That’s going to put a huge strain on the hunger relief network.”

To address the crisis, Governor Newsom announced he is freeing up $80 million in state funds to support food banks across California. The National Guard will assist with distributing food, and volunteers will be mobilized to help meet the increased demand.

“We’re using the framework we established during COVID to build out our capacity to deliver quickly food to those in need around Thanksgiving by using Cal volunteers and the National Guard, which is exactly what we did to distribute 800 million meals during COVID,” Newsom said.

Castillo warned that the strain on food banks could be substantial. “We’re probably going to spend over a half a million dollars as we look to respond over the next few weeks and potentially months during this shutdown,” he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Food Bank saw demand surge from 300,000 to 600,000 people served within weeks. “Within weeks of the shutdown we went from serving 300,000 to 600,000 people during COVID—that’s something that unfortunately could be a possibility now,” Castillo said.

While the San Diego Food Bank has not yet requested National Guard assistance, that could change if the shutdown persists. “We’ll play this day by day, but it is comforting to know that it is available to food banks across the state,” Castillo said.