S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. What you need to know about delayed Cal Fresh benefits and where resources are. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. As the government shutdown nears the 30 day mark , the impacts are intensifying. Cal fresh benefits will be delayed starting November 1st , meaning some 400,000 people across the county will not receive their needed food assistance. And that comes as several states , including California , announced Tuesday they are suing the federal government to keep federal food programs funded. Joseph Kendrick is research manager with the San Diego Hunger Coalition , and joins me now to talk about what this means for food insecurity. Joseph , welcome to Midday Edition. Yes.
S2: Yes. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here.
S1: Glad you're here. So the county of San Diego says Cal Fresh benefits will , in fact , be delayed whether the government shutdown continues or not at this point. What does that mean ? And what's your reaction to the news ? Yeah.
S2: So so what it means essentially , is that those benefits will not go out on November 1st , the way that they normally do. It also means that Cal Fresh replacement benefits , which has benefits for those who had their Cal Fresh EBT stolen from skimming or scamming. That will also be delayed and new applications will be processed , but benefits will be held until the shutdown is over. I think this is this is jarring for a lot of us in the in the anti hunger space. Um , Snap and Cal Fresh , which is what snap is called here in California , is a crucial and the largest program to provide food assistance to families in need in California and in San Diego County. And as you mentioned , this is 400,000 San Diegans that will not get this food on the table. And I'd like to emphasize that this is , you know , November is going to be this month and this is the month of Thanksgiving , when we should be celebrating and being able to to be happy about the food on the table. And thousands of families will not be able to to secure that when we are at a time when we have enough food for everyone.
S1: Well , looking at the current picture , talk to me about the state of hunger in our region today.
S2: Yes , we've been providing research on this for for the last several years. We found that in September of this year and , well , in June of this year , uh , hunger is at the highest that's been since 2020 , since the pandemic , uh , in San Diego County. That means that about 860,000 people in this county are what we consider to be nutrition insecure , meaning that they don't earn enough income to be able to afford three nutritious meals per day. That's about 26% of people in this county. And yeah , this is an alarming rate that obviously , like I said , we have not seen since since 2020 when things were going down because of the the federal programs that were in place. And now we're seeing kind of the opposite where the government shut down. And there are all these cuts looming from from H.R. one that are also going to , to increase hunger in our region. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. So aside from the impacts to people actually having access to enough food , you say there's also an economic impact from Cal Fresh benefits being delayed. Tell me about that. Right.
S2: Right. So there's been studies that have that have been done that show that every dollar that is issued to , to families in Cal Fresh generates actually at $1.79 , that goes back into our local economy. And this is largely because this money is , you know , it's given to people for food. And then that is spent at grocery stores. And that is then reused by those grocery stores and by local businesses in the local economy to pay their workers and to invest in local operations. So enrolling people in Cal Fresh and making sure people have their benefits. What we always say is that this is the best for everybody. This is not just good for people that are in need , but also good for the economy as a whole. And if if these benefits are not issued in November , which it's obviously been announced that they will not be , that means that about $73 million in issuances will be lost , and that results in about $130 million in economic activity lost here in San Diego County.
S1: Another byproduct of the government shutdown is this loss of federal data.
S2: You know , I rely on this these federal data sets that come out every single month , especially from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Uh , we need this information in order to track , you know , who is hungry , where these people are. We measure this by zip code. So if we don't have access to that latest data , that really hinders our ability to track hunger , to track poverty , economic , economic uncertainty , nutrition and security. Because all this information on poverty , on wages , on labor force statistics are all not being released. And of course , that affects our operations and then in turn affects the providers as well as the people in need because we can't that we don't know where to send all the food. We don't have the latest information on on who is hungry and how to get them the support that they need. Mm.
S1: Mm. You know , earlier we used the term delayed that these benefits are being delayed. Any sense of how long. Because even you know , if the government opens back up the the county is saying , hey , there's still going to be some delays and slowdowns in the program. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I don't honestly know how long these delays will be. I think it's somewhat reaffirming from everything that I've heard , it will be a delay rather than a cancellation. So I think these people , uh , the , the beneficiaries will get the benefits eventually if they're enrolled in Cal Fresh. Um , but I honestly , I have no clue when that might be. I think everything is just very dependent on on the the shutdown ending and seeing how fast everything can move. One other point I'd like to make on this is the contingency funds , which I think is related to the lawsuit. There are about $6 billion that could cover the Snap program in November , or most of it at least. And the USDA is now claiming that they can't legally use them , even though it's already been stated on their website under both Trump administrations that this is what this is for. This is what these contingency funds are able to do. So the money is certainly there , and I don't know when benefits will get issued , but hopefully not soon after a shutdown ends. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , even if we , you know , take away this government shutdown and the chaos it's bringing into getting people the food they need. There were already big changes to these programs. Tell me a bit about that. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So , I mean , the Snap program is is massive. Every one meal provided by food banks. Snap provides about nine to people in need. So this is , you know , by far the largest food assistance source for people around the country. And the cuts to H.R. one are really going to create devastating effects to to people that are already on it , whether there's a shutdown or not. Um , increased eligibility requirements will mean that about 96,000 Enrollees will have their cases reviewed to see whether their benefits need to be terminated , and one study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that about 67,000 people in San Diego County will permanently lose access to Cal Fresh , which I think is even more alarming than than not getting benefits in November on time , that they will just be completely removed from the program. And this would increase the monthly meal gap in San Diego , which we estimate it would increase it by about 2.7 million meals and take about $12 million in benefits away from from families. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. So , so , California , in response to all of this , is part of this lawsuit that we just spoke about. Tell me a bit more about that. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , to be quite honest , I need to read up on the lawsuit. I think a lot of this is related to all these cuts and to what the federal government is able to do with the contingency funds that are that are out there exactly for situations like a government shutdown. You know , there's there's funding in place for situations like this whereby a huge program like Snap that is so essential to the functioning of everyday life in America. Uh , that should be covered at least for for one month. You know , like I said , $6 billion , that that should do most of the job to , to cover benefits in November and hopefully that the shutdown will be over by the end of that. So if the USDA is reversing course on , you know , well documented stuff that they already had on their website saying that this is what this stuff is used for , uh , traditionally and historically , you know , I can understand why a lawsuit would come up. And I'm no legal expert , but it makes sense why this would happen. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Uh , earlier you noted how food insecurity has really increased here in the county. Why is that ? What's what's happening ? Yeah.
S2: So I think primarily the two biggest things are inflation and the response to inflation not being well enough in , uh , increases in wages. So wages are mostly , uh , I don't want to say stagnant because they are increasing nominally , but inflation is eating up most of those wage gains for San Diego workers. And this has been pretty consistent since 2020. I think prices are up somewhere around 30% generally in the entire county. And that , you know , you can just translate that to a general cost of living increase of about 30%. So families have not been seeing raises to that effect. Certainly not higher than 30%. So people are either stagnant or their incomes are essentially decreasing because their purchasing power is not going as far anymore. So that is the primary reason why nutrition and security is increasing , just because incomes are not going as far. And then there are , of course , a lot of other reasons related to , you know , the unemployment rate has been picking up this year. Credit card debt is at a very alarming level in San Diego County. I think it's somewhere around $16,000 for the average San Diego household. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , you know , I want to sort of get into where people can go to get food in this kind of situation , where where are some of the places that people can find assistance ? Yeah.
S2: So on our website , you can find a food assistance resource flier where we have we have it available in 13 different languages. We have one for Mountain Empire and one for Escondido specifically. So you can go there and you can find where we would recommend going. I mean , historically it's been you know , we encourage everybody to enroll in Cal Fresh. And I think that's still , you know , a great opportunity. But in the meantime , with the shutdown , I think places like locations of Feeding San Diego , the San Diego Food Bank , that's for for more general meals. There's also locations specifically for older adults. You can go to Meals on Wheels serving seniors , and the food bank also has a senior meals program. Get enrolled in whic. The Salvation Army has locations on their website. And I know that's a lot. So maybe most simply , you can just call 211 to find the food distribution site nearest to you and they will provide you. You know where to go.
S1:
S2: But yeah , another crucial program that that hopefully I know the food bank does work on that. I believe the funding for that was cut this year. Um , but yeah , it's another another program that is essential to to the functioning of of the anti hunger space. In the meantime , while calf rush is decreased.
S1: Of course we will have all of these resources on our website , KPBS dawg. Finally , before we go , can you talk about just the human impact here ? We've talked a lot about numbers. Um , give me some some stories of how people are actually impacted by this. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , at the top , I think that we need to rethink food as something that there should be a right to food. You know , food is a human right. And without it , people are are unable to to , to really get any assistance , consistent assistance. This is I mean , this is personal for me. My mother , for example , is trying to reapply for disability. She hasn't had income since Labor Day and she is now trying to apply for Snap. And now that's going to be delayed even more. So I mean , this is this is personal. This is affecting everybody. And anybody I think knows somebody that is enrolled in Snap or relies on snap in some way. Um , and yeah , we see this all the time. And the food banks , of course , see it all the time as the people that they serve. Their their operations are strained. There's so many people that are that are coming to the food banks and trying to get assistance. And , uh , unfortunately , it's increasing. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. I've been speaking with Joseph Kendrick. He is a research manager with the San Diego Hunger Coalition. Joseph , thank you so much for joining us. And thanks for the resources.
S2: Thank you so much for having me.
S1: That's our show for today.
S3: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
