{"id":356932,"date":"2026-06-11T23:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356932\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T23:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:06:12","slug":"a-california-program-providing-fruits-and-veggies-to-low-income-families-is-running-out-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356932\/","title":{"rendered":"A California program providing fruits and veggies to low-income families is running out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A program dedicated to providing low-income California residents with extra money for fruits and vegetables<\/a> is likely to go under this summer if additional funds are not allocated in this year\u2019s state budget, according to concerned food justice advocates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program<\/a> provides CalFresh recipients with up to $60 a month of free produce each month, in addition to their benefits. In May alone, the program disbursed over $5 million and \u201cserved 95,520 California households,\u201d said Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, senior manager at food policy nonprofit Fullwell, which has backed<\/a> the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverwhelmingly, folks have been telling us that they want it to continue, that it\u2019s made a really positive impact on them,\u201d Marquez-Nieblas said. \u201cTheir diabetes is better managed; their high blood pressure is better managed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those people are now at risk of losing access to that support as funds whittle down. The state budget is set to be finalized on June 15, and \u201cas far as we know, there is no continued funding that has been proposed,\u201d Marquez-Nieblas said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen this program ends, we\u2019ll have less money to spend, [at] a time when groceries are incredibly more expensive. Gas is more expensive. Everything is more expensive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, unfortunately, a compounding effect. There\u2019s lots of stuff that\u2019s impacting the same people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program is simple to use: When customers purchase food at participating markets<\/a>, like Arteaga\u2019s Food Center in San Jos\u00e9, they just swipe their EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card.<\/p>\n

For every purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables with that card, customers receive an instant rebate each month, applied to their card. The rebate money can be spent on any food or goods covered by CalFresh, like meat, eggs and dairy \u2014 it is not limited to fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

Marquez-Nieblas explained that the pilot program has been implemented in three phases \u2014 the latest of which received a limited, one-time allocation of $36 million from the state budget. That seems like a large number, \u201cuntil we realize that there are hundreds of thousands of individuals across the state using the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been proven many times that CalFresh \u2014 and programs like this that support people having more money for food \u2014 are incredibly impactful for lifting children out of poverty, for supporting seniors with limited incomes, for anybody,\u201d Marquez-Nieblas said. \u201cFoundationally, these programs are good. They\u2019re good for public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food policy advocates said they are hoping for $100 million for the program to continue to operate year-round. Instead, it was reappropriated around $4.8 million \u2014 the remaining funds from last year\u2019s budget cycle, in Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s \u201cMay Revise\u201d proposal, according to H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the California Department of Finance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program will operate until funds are fully utilized,\u201d Palmer said in an email to KQED.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s end would come at a particularly stressful time for CalFresh recipients. This month, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, California has begun enforcing new and expanded federal guidelines\u00a0<\/a>that require some CalFresh recipients to work 20 hours a week, or an average of 80 hours a month \u2014 with a stark reduction in food benefits for those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The changes were prompted by the passing of President Donald Trump\u2019s H.R.1<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does it add in the onerous work requirement \u2014 a lot of people who are already receiving CalFresh are working \u2014 but now they have this bureaucratic paperwork to provide,\u201d said Kathy Saile, California director of national nonprofit No Kid Hungry. \u201cThere\u2019s some real concern that people could lose benefits just because they couldn\u2019t figure out the paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

H.R. 1\u2019s impact, which also cuts food benefits for some refugees and asylum seekers<\/a>, is apparent, according to federal data analyzed by the nonpartisan research group Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.<\/p>\n

The center estimated that nationwide, SNAP participation fell by almost 9%<\/a> \u2014 more than 3.5 million people \u2014 between H.R.1\u2019s start in July 2025 and February 2026.<\/p>\n

Palmer said the state was taking proactive steps to maintain residents\u2019 enrollment in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes leveraging existing data to determine possible exemptions from the new SNAP work requirements, implementing automation, and conducting client outreach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the latest budget revision has \u201ca total of $38 million for the CalFood program \u2014 which funds food banks for the purchase, storage, and transportation of food grown and\/or produced in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a time of rising bureaucratic barriers implemented by H.R. 1, Marquez-Nieblas said the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program is part of the state\u2019s food safety net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just about backfill,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about responding to the impacts (of H.R. 1), which are incredibly awful. It\u2019s also about setting ourselves up for success in the future, knowing we have to invest proactively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marquez-Nieblas said CalFresh recipients should keep their eyes on the California Department of Social Services\u00a0website<\/a> for any possible updates and changes in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A program dedicated to providing low-income California residents with extra money for fruits and vegetables is likely to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2076,145379,3302,7,9,8,20299,8004,21621],"class_list":["post-356932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-budget","tag-ca-frutis","tag-calfresh","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-free","tag-produce","tag-vegetables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356932","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=356932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}