California Association of Food Banks

• Safety Net
  • Food

CalFresh may be California’s food stamp program, but as each county maintains its own procedures, the state essentially operates 58 different versions of the program. Partly due to this complication, half of those eligible for participation fail to receive the benefit. Responding, California Association of Food Banks unites numerous food providers and food justice advocates to amend these and other policies that impede participation in CalFresh. It seeks to boost participation rates to 75% by 2016, eliminate the waiting period for benefits, and reduce the 20% dropout and re-enrollment rate. At a county level, the organization will recruit and train at least 35 local advocates to implement the platform.