Pandemic food benefits are ending for millions of Californians. Now what?
LA TimesNearly 3 million households in California will stop receiving extra federal food benefits granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a squeeze on budgets that comes as people continue to struggle with the rising cost of living. Since March 2020, low-income Californians have seen an increase in CalFresh benefits, the state’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Delia Priscilla Ortega Darden visits the South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership food bank on Wednesday, where she collects free groceries when CalFresh benefits run out. of Food Banks, who called the timing “catastrophic.” The loss of the pandemic food benefits, plus the eventual expiration of electronic benefit transfer cards for low-income children, means a 30% loss to the state’s food safety net, she said. “The expiration of the emergency boost to the CalFresh program, while inflation and food costs remain high, could push low-income Angelenos to the precipice of a hunger cliff,” said Kayla de la Haye, an associate professor of population and public health sciences at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
History of this topic
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