Tag: Advocacy

“Not Part-time Employees”

June 28, 2022

CalFresh is supposed to be the first line of defense against hunger, but that’s often not the case for college students. For Dustin and Anthony, two among thousands of college students facing food insecurity, the Federal EATS Act would make a huge difference. Dustin is an LGBT Studies major and first-generation college student at City College of SF. Like many other students, Dustin turns to the Food Bank to stock his fridge and pantry. CalFresh isn’t an accessible option for him because of the work requirements and red tape in the application process. “I do not have the support of parents sending me through college, so I utilize the Food Bank when I don’t have funds,” Dustin told us at Rosa Parks Pop-up Pantry in March.  

School Comes First 

Anthony is a graduate student at UCSF, currently in his second year of the dentistry program. He’s been a recipient of CalFresh on and off since 2018. When we spoke on the phone, he laid out his simple problem with the work requirement for students. “When you’re in a rigorous academic program, you don’t really have much time to study if you’re working to make ends meet. It puts a lot of stress on students who are now focusing more on working instead of studying. We are full-time students, not part-time employees.”  

Not Enough Time in the Day 

For students who come from low-income backgrounds, a college degree holds the promise of less financial struggle in the future. Getting that degree, however, is not easy. And dedicating 20 hours of precious study time a week to a job, just so that you can buy groceries, doesn’t make it any easier. It’s a vicious cycle that forces students to choose between their studies and their survival. That’s why students like Anthony are such strong supporters of passing the Federal EATS Act. “I know countless friends and family members who are college students and could greatly benefit from CalFresh. With the EATS Act, if we remove these barriers then people will have much easier access to food.” 

National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference

March 18, 2021

Federal Advocacy in the Time of COVID

Every spring, our Policy & Advocacy team flies to Washington D.C. for a National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference co-hosted by Feeding America and the Food Research and Action Center.  Our new COVID reality has shifted the conference from our nation’s capital to our own home offices but hasn’t diminished the power of uniting thousands of anti-poverty and anti-hunger advocates in common purpose.

New Administration, New Opportunities

Since assuming office in January, the Biden Administration has taken dramatic, long-sought steps to reduce hunger across the country during the COVID crisis.  The passage of the American Rescue Plan represents a one-in-a-generation investment in low-income Americans and in our nation’s children.  From extending increased benefit levels for SNAP (food stamps) recipients to providing support for free meals for kids while in-person learning is suspended to making it easier for college students to access SNAP, the Biden Administration has made rapid investments in our anti-hunger infrastructure nationwide.

Advocates at the Anti-Hunger Policy Conference will hear from the new Secretary of Agriculture at the USDA, Tom Vilsack.  Food banks like ours receive millions of pounds of food through the USDA and the SNAP/CalFresh program is also funded through the agency, so we look forward to continuing to build relationships with the new Secretary and his staff to push for increased funding and policy advancements for our federal nutrition programs.

Lobbying From Your Living Room

The new remote format makes it easier for advocates who were previously unable to participate in the vital activity of meeting directly with our elected leaders because of the challenge of paying for travel to D.C.  Our Policy & Advocacy team arranged meetings with our Members of Congress and fellow community-based organizations from our district to share the local impact of Federal policies and request their support for policies and funding to alleviate hunger across their district.

Our priorities include continuing to strengthen the social safety net through extending SNAP and school meal flexibilities, fortifying the donated food pipeline that keeps food bank shelves stocked, and making long-term investments in child nutrition.  We will continue to fight for these vital resources to keep our communities nourished, during COVID and long after.

 

Vote to End Hunger

September 23, 2020

Who We Elect Matters

We have seen COVID-19 and its economic fallout thrust millions of more families into poverty and hunger. In San Francisco County, for instance, nearly 19% of households struggled to get enough to eat in April and May, up from 5.7% in December 2018, according to the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. here at the Food Bank we have seen nearly twice as many households turn to us for support compared to before the pandemic.

The crisis has only highlighted how vital food assistance programs are for the 40% of Americans who already lack enough savings to cover a $400 emergency expense. Amidst the chaos, uncertainty, and unprecedented crises this year has dealt us, it has rarely been clearer that our elected leaders hold tremendous power in shaping our daily lives.

Federally, our Members of Congress reacted quickly to the crisis by passing landmark COVID relief legislation providing much-needed stimulus money, unemployment benefits, and healthcare support for Americans impacted by the coronavirus.  Our state lawmakers pushed for historic budget investments to support food banks and the tens of thousands of newly food insecure Californians through investments in CalFresh, child nutrition programs, and emergency food boxes.

The policies and programs our elected officials support or oppose have urgent, lasting impact on the ability of our neighbors to feed themselves and their families.

Cast Your Vote to End Hunger

Your vote this election cycle can help decide the future of life-saving programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (CalFresh, formerly food stamps), can affect how many kids get access to school meals, and can ensure that putting policies in place to end hunger is a priority for lawmakers.  Join us on National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 22nd, to double-check your voter registration status.

Vote to end hunger. Then, ask a friend or a family member to do the same.

Beyond the Ballot Box

Whether it’s signing onto an email campaign, tweeting at your Senator, showing up to a virtual Town Hall meeting held by your Supervisor, or simply filling out the Census, your engagement in civic life has an impact, and your voice matters.

We believe it will take the combined will of both the public and our elected officials to elevate hunger as a key issue in this election cycle. We’re counting on you to not only make sure you’re registered to vote, but to cast your ballot for candidates who hold our shared values of ending hunger.

Feeding Our Kids During the Pandemic

May 13, 2020

Hunger Intensifies for Families With Kids Out of School

Before the pandemic, over 40,000 families in San Francisco and Marin had children who received free or reduced-price meals each day at school. This helped ease the financial burden on hard-working low-income families and ensured that kids were getting the nutrition they needed to thrive in and out of school. 

Since schools closed, these families have been scrambling to find resources to feed their kids when work has become scarce and support networks have been strained. We see so many of these parents picking up groceries at our Pop-up pantries while they wait for unemployment insurance or CalFresh benefits to arrive. 

New research explores how dramatically the economic collapse has deepened food insecurity, with nearly one in five children not getting enough to eat. That rate is three times higher than in 2008, at the height of the Great Recession. Our pantry programs help, but we need a stronger social safety net to help families in crisis. 

Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) Can Help

Thanks to fierce advocacy from anti-hunger groups including the Food Bank, families whose children typically receive free school lunch will now be able to receive up to $365 per child on a debit card to purchase food through a new program called Pandemic EBT (P-EBT).  Enacted in March in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, P-EBT was created to help compensate for those missing school meals.  Families whose children receive CalFresh, Medi-Cal, or are in foster care will automatically receive this card in the mail between May 8 and May 22.  For those who don’t automatically qualify, a short application will be available on May 22. 

Families will be able to use this money to purchase groceries at most grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and at select online retailers. Receiving P-EBT does not jeopardize a person’s immigration status and is not included in public charge determinations. Families are also still encouraged to pick up free to-go meals from school meal sites in their neighborhoods. 

 More Action is Needed to End Hunger

This will be a tremendous help for many struggling to put food on the table, but it is insufficient to fill the staggering need among families in our community. As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and it will take all of us to urge lawmakers to prioritize policy solutions to feed our children, too. 

Please, call your lawmakers (202-224-3121) and urge them to include new investments in SNAP that will help the economy rebound from the impact of the pandemic and ensure the well-being of millions of children. Ask them to: 

  • boost the SNAP maximum benefit by 15%; 
  • increase the minimum monthly SNAP benefit from $16 to $30; 
  • suspend any administrative actions that eliminate or weaken SNAP benefits. 

 

Food Insecurity Town Hall

April 29, 2020

Last night, we were proud to participate in a digital Town Hall Meeting on food insecurity during the COVID–19 crisis, hosted by San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener. Over 2,200 people watched on Facebook and Zoom as our Executive Director, Paul Ash, joined leaders from fellow Bay Area non-profits working to ensure no one in our community goes hungry during this difficult time. 

Food Providers Adapting To Meet the Growing Need 

Senator Wiener was joined by the leaders of Meals on Wheels SF, St. Anthony’s, Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley, and the CA Association of Food Banks. Each organization is reporting exponential growth in the number of people in need of food assistance since the crisis hit. In the face of significant challenges — including operating with only 60% of their workforce and fewer volunteers, having to rethink how to prepare thousands of meals while keeping cooks 6 feet apart, and compensating for closed pantries — the organizations are continuing to step up to feed more of our neighbors facing hunger. As Executive Director Jose Ramirez of St. Anthony’s shared, “We’re really leaning on each other and learning what it means to be a community.” 

“We should not go back to the ‘old normal'” 

The Town Hall also focused on the ways that COVID-19 has helped advocates advance policy recommendations that improve food access. The crisis has actually allowed us to secure improvements to the CalFresh program for which advocates have been fighting for many years. These include the expansion of online purchasing using CalFresh benefits, allowing for the application process to be done entirely over the phone, and waiving the interview requirement. 

The Food Bank is co-sponsoring a bill in the State Senate, authored by Senator Wiener, that aims to make some of these program flexibilities permanent.  SB 882 – CalFresh: Simpler for Seniors – would make it easier for eligible low-income Californians to sign up and stay connected to CalFresh, particularly older adults and people with disabilities, many of whom have been hit hardest by the COVID crisis. 

We are In This Together 

As our colleague Jose from St. Anthony’s shared last night, “This is an opportunity to reflect on our priorities as a city, as a community, and as a country. We have to address food insecurity as the crisis that it is. It’s about human connection and compassion – putting people first, leading with compassion, and letting the rest fall into place.” 

You can catch the townhall here.

Feeding Kids During COVID19

April 21, 2020

Schools May Be Closed, but Hunger Persists 

Last year, 9,000 kids in Marin and 30,300 kids in San Francisco received free or reduced-price meals every day at school.  When their schools shuttered last month to combat the spread of COVID–19, families were left wondering how they would be able to feed their children while they were at home. 

Child Nutrition Advocates Push for Policies to Feed Our Kids 

In response, we advocated for policymakers at all levels of government to act quickly to ensure that children would not suffer from hunger during this public health crisis.    

Here are three of the advocacy wins that are helping children continue to access the food they need to grow and thrive, even during these challenging times: 

  1. Children of all ages can access grab-and-go school meals during COVID-related school closures.  The Families First Coronavirus Response Act allowed the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) flexibility in cutting through some of the administrative red tape that typically governs child nutrition programs. Now, schools and other participating sites can provide grab-and-go meals and home-delivered meals to eligible children while their schools are closed. In San Francisco, the Food Bank is also working with the Unified School District to locating our Pop-Up Pantries at school sites that serve free to-go school meals. The “CA Meals for Kids” mobile app is available to help families find participating sites. Read more about our emergency pop-ups here.  
  2. Low-income families will receive money to buy food through Pandemic EBT. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act also established a new program called Pandemic EBT, which will offer a quick and easy way to get food to school-age students by providing funds on a credit-like card for children who are eligible to receive free and reduced-price school lunch. The California Department of Social Services is working with the California Department of Education to efficiently deliver benefits to all families who qualify without anyone having to submit an application. 
  3. Women, Infant, and Children’s (WIC) Program gets a boost. WIC is a federal nutrition program helping pregnant people, new mothers, and their children access vital nutrition in their formative years.  The Families First Act provides $500 million in additional WIC funds to ensure that the program can serve more people as the economic downturn worsens, and also loosens regulatory requirements during the pandemic.  California was granted flexibility in reducing the administrative and regulatory burdens typically placed on WIC recipients, including temporarily halting in-person meeting requirements and blood tests, as well as expanding the foods that families can buy with their WIC card. 

#InThisTogether: Policymakers Support Food Banks

April 16, 2020

Advocacy in the Age of Shelter in Place 

Every April, our Policy & Advocacy team joins advocates from food banks statewide in Sacramento to meet with our elected leaders.Typically, our Capitol Action Day is an exciting time to gather with fellow advocates and elected champions to rally around our shared anti-hunger priorities and push for policies and programs that help our communities. In our new COVID-19 reality, we continued the tradition but shifted our meetings with lawmakers to video chats. 

The Need is More Urgent Than Ever 

With food banks across the state and throughout the country seeing unprecedented demand for food in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, our legislative priority was clear: fund food banks. When disasters strike, food banks find themselves on the front lines of response. Last week, we served 40,000 households, 10,000 more than just a few weeks ago, and our lines are only getting longer. We asked our State Senators and Assemblymembers to support our budget requests for additional state funding to help continue to serve the increased need. 

#InThisTogether 

During this crisis,  San Francisco and Marin State policymakers have shown incredible support for the Food Bank and our mission. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been pleased to host many of our Assemblymembers, Senators, and County Supervisors at our Pop-up pantries. They have rolled up their sleeves, donned masks, and shown up to help feed their communities. We couldn’t do what we do without their ongoing support, both in their districts and in Sacramento. 

 

Advocates Respond to COVID-19

April 1, 2020

Government Action Offers Some Relief, but More is Needed to Prevent Widespread Hunger

For the 37 million Americans who were struggling with food insecurity before this crisis unfolded, and for the millions more who were just barely making ends meet, COVID-19 has meant an unfathomable increase in hunger and hardship.

While our Programs and Operations teams work tirelessly to launch new pop-up pantries to respond to the growing demand for food in our community, our Policy & Advocacy team has been collaborating with elected leaders and social safety net administrators to ensure that all our neighbors can feed themselves and their families during this challenging time.

Federal Response

The Food Bank, along with anti-hunger advocates at the national and state level, has been in regular contact with our members of Congress since the beginning of the crisis to push for essential resources and nutrition assistance for our communities. We applaud our federal leaders for swiftly passing measures to provide direct aid to individuals and families.  Without strong economic security measures, food insecurity will only intensify.  These bills also include key investments for:

  • food security through SNAP (formerly food stamps);
  • food for kids who usually rely on free meals at school;
  • USDA commodities for food banks through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

Details of the first three stimulus bills are linked here:

Despite these investments, we believe that lawmakers missed a critical opportunity to serve the dual function of stimulating the economy and feeding hungry Americans by increasing the maximum SNAP benefit by 15% and increasing the minimum benefit to $30. Every $1 of SNAP benefits spent generates between $1.50-$1.80 in economic activity.

State & Local Response

The stimulus bills passed by Congress also removed much of the administrative red tape that comes with operating federal nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC (Women, Infant, and Children), and Free and Reduced-Price School Meals.  These federal programs are administered at the local level, so California’s safety net program administrators have been working around the clock to ensure a smooth rollout of these administrative flexibilities to provide food relief for those impacted by the pandemic.  We are working closely with our state and county partners to prevent any of our vulnerable neighbors from falling through the cracks.

Earlier this month, Governor Newsom issued an executive order that eased rules for applicants to social service programs, including CalFresh, Medi-Cal health coverage, welfare through CalWorks, and in-home support services.  The state has also taken action towards eliminating known barriers to accessing CalFresh, including waiving the interview requirement and pursuing online food purchase using EBT. These changes come as an unprecedented wave of new CalFresh applications are being submitted each week.

While the state Legislature is on recess through April 13th, our state Senators and Assemblymembers have been supporting our efforts here in the community. Supervisors in both Marin and San Francisco counties have been engaged with our response effort and have worked to elevate our efforts in the community. We’re grateful for the support of our elected officials who have also stepped up by volunteering at our Pop-up pantries, sharing resources and referrals with their constituents via social media and newsletters, and championing state budget requests to shore up food bank emergency infrastructure.

 Take Action Now

It will take a concerted effort from advocates, community members, impacted individuals, and elected leaders to prioritize policy solutions that help all Californians put food on the table during this crisis. We can #EndHungerTogether.

Please, call your lawmakers (202-224-3121) and urge them to include new investments in SNAP that will help the economy rebound from the impact of the pandemic and are critical to ensuring the well-being of vulnerable people. Ask them to:

  • boost the SNAP maximum benefit;
  • increase the minimum monthly SNAP benefit to $30;
  • suspend any administrative actions that eliminate or weaken SNAP benefits.

CalFresh Expands to 400,000 Californians and Counting

February 20, 2020

CalFresh Expansion Makes History

In April, we shared the big news on a policy change that expanded CalFresh (food stamps) eligibility to people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI). For the approximately 1.2 million Californians who rely on the maximum SSI benefit of just $783 a month (just 74% of the federal poverty line), finally being eligible to receive nutrition benefits can make a tremendous difference in their quality of life. Since the policy change went into effect in June 2019, we’ve been working tirelessly along with our county, state, and community-based partners to get the word out and help enroll the newly eligible seniors and adults with disabilities.

Our hard work has paid off! As of December, nearly 405,900 SSI recipients have been newly enrolled in CalFresh. That’s one-third of the entire SSI population in the state! These new applicants are receiving an average of $75-$85 per month to help meet their grocery needs.

“It has helped me a lot – you wouldn’t believe it!”

You might remember 71-year-old San Francisco resident Queen, we blogged about her last year. When the policy change went into effect in June, we helped her navigate the application process. We caught up with her last week to hear about how receiving CalFresh has impacted her life.

Queen shared her excitement about being able to use the benefits to get extra spending power at farmer’s markets through the Market Match program. “The CalFresh benefits help me purchase foods at a local African grocery store. It reminds me of my home in the Gambia,” she said. CalFresh helps her keep in good spirits. She shared, “If you eat good, of course, it impacts your health. I have been diagnosed with depression, so sometimes when I want to lift my spirit, I go and get something that I really like to eat and it helps a lot.”

Take Action!

Are you an SSI recipient interested in applying for CalFresh benefits?

  • CLICK: Apply online: GetCalFresh.org
  • CALL: Call our hotline to get application assistance in English, Spanish, or Chinese: 415-549-7021
  • COME IN: Walk into a county office to apply in person: Locations are listed on the Human Services Agency website

Are you a community-based organization interested in helping your clients enroll? 

  1. The Food Bank provides CalFresh Outreach and Application Assistance training for agencies who work closely with SSI recipients. For San Francisco-based agencies, contact Ada Lai at 415-282-1907 x258 or alai@sfmfoodbank.org. For Marin organizations, contact Alexandra Danino at 415-282-1907 x014 or adanino@sfmfoodbank.org
  2. Check out the San Francisco Human Services Agency Partner Toolkit, which includes helpful resources and outreach materials
  3. Download informational flyers to hand out and post at your organization:

Hunger Action Coalition Takes Policy Demands to Sacramento

January 30, 2020

#EndHungerTogether

As active members of the California Hunger Action Coalition (CHAC), we have been fighting for policies and programs to combat hunger for nearly three decades.  On January 22nd, our Policy & Advocacy team traveled to Sacramento to join fellow anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocates for a day of action in the Capitol.  We joined advocates from the End Child Poverty California campaign for a rally on the Capitol lawn, drawing attention to the heartbreaking and intolerable fact that California has the highest rate (1 in 5 kids) of child poverty in the country.

Building Political Will

We met with our elected officials in the Assembly and Senate on our policy and budget priorities for 2020.  We are lucky to have champions for our cause in both houses, and they came out to listen to what some of our most vulnerable neighbors had to share about their experience.  This face-to-face interaction between impacted Californians and the elected leaders who represent them is core to our strategy of influencing policy at the state and local level.

From Words to Action

As the 2020 legislative session begins to pick up speed this spring, we will be in Sacramento continuing to fight for policies that help our most vulnerable neighbors feed themselves and their families.  We are co-sponsoring a bill this year authored by Senator Scott Wiener, SB 882, our “Simpler for Seniors” CalFresh bill, which will help older Californians struggling to make ends meet get the food benefits they need to age with dignity.