According to county data<\/a>, 88,000 CalFresh recipients are under 18, 48,000 are 60 or older, and 241,000 are enrolled in both Medi-Cal and CalFresh.<\/p>\nEarly this month, the food assistance program Women Infants and Children received a limited infusion of tariff funds from the White House to keep the program running during the shutdown, but the measure is temporary and expected to last only a few weeks. State agencies warn they cannot plan beyond that and already are reducing services. Other child nutrition programs, such as school lunch and breakfast programs, will continue operating in the short term, while summer meal programs remain unaffected. The Department of Agriculture has issued a contingency plan, but the long-term outlook depends on how long the shutdown continues.<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Oct. 22 the deployment of the California National Guard and California Volunteers to assist food banks as the federal shutdown delays food benefits for millions of families. He is also fast-tracking up to $80 million in state aid, mirroring the emergency response that helped distribute more than 800 million meals during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s failure \u2026 it\u2019s literally taking food out of people\u2019s mouths. Millions of Americans rely on food benefits to feed their families, and while Republicans in Washington drag their feet, California is stepping up once again to fill in the gaps,\u201d Newsom said in a statement.<\/p>\n
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office and a coalition of states are suing the Department of Agriculture for suspending SNAP food benefits during the shutdown.<\/p>\n
Carlos Marquez III, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, told KCRA 3 that county agencies are usually in the position of reassuring residents that their benefits are stable. This time, he said, local administrators are being forced to warn families about an imminent loss of aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are core safety net programs. After all, they\u2019re some of the greatest tools that we have as a state to fight and reduce poverty,\u201d Marquez said.<\/p>\n
Marquez told KCRA 3 that the shutdown\u2019s effects extend beyond CalFresh households and into the broader economy. Across California, about 25,000 retailers \u2014 mostly grocery stores \u2014 are authorized to accept SNAP benefits. Those transactions support approximately 175,000 jobs and generate about $23 billion in annual economic activity. For every dollar spent through SNAP, roughly $1.50 circulates back into the economy, he said, amplifying the program\u2019s local impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impacts are significant and go beyond these individuals,\u201d Marquez said. \u201cBut these are folks who are seniors, these are people who have disabilities, these are children.\u201d He added that about 60% of CalFresh recipients are employed, illustrating that food insecurity affects working families as well.<\/p>\n
Marquez also outlined three points he wants the public to understand. Recipients will be entitled to back benefits once federal funding resumes, even if November payments are delayed. Remaining balances on EBT cards from October can be used throughout November. And people should continue to apply for CalFresh, since eligible families will receive benefits retroactively when the government reopens.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to sound the alarm as the administrators of these programs at this moment in time because the consequences are significant, not just for recipients, but for the broader economy,\u201d Marquez said.<\/p>\n
Community advocates said the halt will hit low-income families hardest.<\/p>\n
Herman Barahona, co-founder of the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, said many organizations are waiting for state direction and that food banks lack the capacity to meet the coming demand. \u201cThe State of California would have to make some announcements on what happens on Nov. 1,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re holding to see if there are any agreements to fund it [SNAP] through state sources or to develop new efforts to supply food for people. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen with people who cannot buy food in November other than going to the food banks, which we know do not have capacity to serve 267,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barahona said Sacramento\u2019s food insecurity crisis has persisted for years and reflects systemic failures that predate the current shutdown. He described the connection between food assistance and housing as part of a \u201cpipeline to homelessness,\u201d explaining that many unhoused residents once relied on programs like CalFresh or Medi-Cal before losing stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese numbers have been high for a while now,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of the folks that end up on the streets have, at some point, faced all kinds of conditions that throw them into the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the crisis shows the need for stronger prevention efforts and long-term investment, noting that the poorest residents always bear the brunt of national and local emergencies. Barahona also pointed to the state\u2019s failure to meet its affordable housing commitments, arguing that California\u2019s wealth \u2014 the state has the world\u2019s fourth largest economy \u2014 should translate into better results.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people are going to make very tough decisions to choose to stay housed or to pay for food or their medications,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth parties, left or right, liberal or conservative, need to protect the poor, not demonize them or marginalize them further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said the loss of CalFresh will ripple throughout the economy. \u201cGrocers lose tons of customers right away,\u201d she said. \u201cSNAP spending accounts for billions every year at grocery stores, and when that disappears, stores in low-income neighborhoods get hit first and hardest,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole local economy starts to crumble. Cutting SNAP doesn\u2019t just mean empty stomachs \u2014 it triggers a public health emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanchez said reduced spending means layoffs, smaller paychecks, and cuts to city services. \u201cWhen SNAP disappears, the pain doesn\u2019t stay at the bottom, it quickly climbs all the way up the ladder,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez also pointed out that food insecurity can become a public health and housing crisis. She said families facing hunger make impossible choices \u2014 skipping meals, diluting food, or rationing medicine to get by. Children who go to school hungry struggle to learn, while seniors forgo prescriptions to stretch their budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people have the basics, everyone benefits \u2014 not just SNAP families, but every business and worker connected to the food industry and beyond,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cKeeping SNAP going is how we keep the whole economy and all our families from falling off a cliff. When we pull SNAP, we pull the rug out from under everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGlothen said if SNAP payments stop, he plans to get by with help from family, food banks, and local donors. Many others, he said, won\u2019t have that safety net. \u201cA lot of people that are homeless don\u2019t have family or have lost contact with their family,\u201d he said. \u201cI do have family that I can depend on getting stuff from or from donors and I can go to the food banks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he still tries to help others when he can, keeping food ready in case someone comes by his home hungry. \u201cMy friends come by every day to take a shower or because they are hungry. I got something in there cooking right now on my stove just in case somebody comes by and they\u2019re hungry.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody should ever go hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n
EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:This is being reported with the support of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism<\/a>\u2019s 2025 Ethnic Media Collaborative, Healing California.<\/p>\n\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beginning Saturday, Nov. 1, Sacramento County residents who rely on CalFresh, California\u2019s version of the federal SNAP program,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3302,21330,912,21331,21332,21333,5037,21334,12388,121,357,123,122,14188],"class_list":["post-28535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-calfresh","tag-carlos-marquez-iii","tag-carousel","tag-crystal-sanchez","tag-dennis-mcglothen","tag-ethan-dye","tag-gov-gavin-newsom","tag-herman-barahona","tag-robert-j-hansen","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-snap-benefits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}