SNAP Challenge Reflections and How You Can Help

As I near the end of the Challenge, I’m grateful for the insights I have gained into the daily struggles that so many low-income Californians face in accessing healthy, affordable food.  Even with all the supports I enjoy, it has been a stressful, aggravating week of planning and managing meals, as well as dealing with the surprisingly vivid mental and physical effects from just a few days of a reduced diet and the constant desire to buy the variety of foods I want to eat and enjoy the freedom to have the resources to fulfill my basic needs.

I’ve also watched what seemed like a fairly large quantity of food quickly vanish, a visual exclamation point on the fact that CalFresh benefits are calculated using the preposterously low “Thrifty” food plan. In fact, benefits are so low that nearly a third of all CalFresh (known as SNAP nationally) still have to rely on our food banks every month. 

Thankfully, there are two things you can do to help address this issue –

1. Contact our Governor & state leaders to provide $17.5M in ongoing support to California Food Banks to help end hunger with only California grown foods
2. Ask your Member of Congress to co-sponsor HR 1276 that would provide adequate CalFresh benefits to every household

Written by Andrew Cheyne, Director of Government Affairs