As the government shutdown continues, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday he would deploy the National Guard and set aside millions to help food banks. It's a move local food assistance organizations say is an unfolding crisis.
The governor's announcement came days after the state's Department of Social Services warned counties that people on CalFresh may not receive their benefits in November if the shutdown continues past Thursday. CalFresh is California's version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Around 395,000 people in San Diego County receive CalFresh benefits.
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“When the benefits disappear, they're going to be over 400,000 people added into the hunger relief network,” Feeding San Diego CEO Robert Kamensky said.
Local food assistance programs can cover about one meal for every nine meals that CalFresh covers, Kamensky said, making it untenable for local agencies to cover the gap.
Local food assistance organizations can't do it alone, San Diego Food Bank CEO Casey Castillo said.
"It's going to take philanthropy. It's going to take corporations, it's going to take community leaders, it's going to take nonprofits," he said. "Really going to take all of us working together. But it's going to be a difficult task."
The Food Bank is tapping $500,000 in reserves to cover the increased demands temporarily, Castillo said.
Cora Webber received the notification from the county Tuesday about the possible disruption. She receives $112 from CalFresh each month.
“There goes my everything, my meals for next month, my Thanksgiving plan," Webber said. "Everything is out the window now because I don't have the cash to fund meals for myself.”
In addition to the National Guard deployment, Newsom also freed up $80 million in CalFood funds for food banks in anticipation of the increased demand.
“What the governor did is he's advancing those dollars so we can utilize them now to respond to the increased demand,” Castillo said.
The National Guard, he said, would help sort and bag food in the Food Bank's warehouse, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the Food Bank and Feeding San Diego said they’ve seen an increase in demand from federal workers and military families.
“Lately, we have been asked by members of the Marine Corps up at Camp Pendleton to do discrete food distributions,” Kamensky said.
As for Webber, Feeding San Diego staff is helping her connect to other food distribution networks.
