CalFresh halt triggers disaster response to Sacramento, foothills food insecurity
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- County activates emergency operations center to coordinate food distribution
- Federal shutdown pauses CalFresh, threatening benefits for millions of CA residents
- Food banks, nonprofits and officials scale supplies, staffing and behavioral supports
Sacramento County officials activated their emergency operations center earlier this week, not because of a wildfire or a flood or a power shutoff. This time, the emergency is hunger.
The federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week, and the ensuing pause in CalFresh funding threatens to halt food benefits beginning Saturday for nearly 270,000 residents.
In response, Sacramento County has deployed the same infrastructure it typically uses to coordinate evacuations, move sandbags and deliver disaster supplies — but now it’s being used to ensure hundreds of thousands of people are fed.
The pain extends far beyond the capital. Roughly 120,000 Californians living in six neighboring counties, 5.5 million statewide and 42 million across the United States will lose money to pay for their groceries.
“When we look at food stamp usage across the county, it really does impact all of our communities,” said Tim Lutz, director of health services for Sacramento County. “Access to the (Sacramento) food bank, even before anything happened with CalFresh, is already at historic highs, even higher than it was during COVID.”
In Placer, El Dorado and Nevada counties, the nonprofit Feeding the Foothills is also preparing for unprecedented demand, said Lisa Heinrich, the group’s development director.
“For every meal that our organization provides to a family,” she explained, “CalFresh provides nine.”
Nonprofit leaders and county staff are mobilizing resources and preparing for the surge. Danielle Lawrence, executive director of Mutual Assistance Network, works to ensure the social safety net supports poor and working-class families in Arden Arcade, Del Paso Heights and other North Sacramento neighborhoods.
“Hunger creates stress, and stress can lead to child abuse. We know that. We’ve seen it,” Lawrence said. “My fear is that more crime is going to start because families are going to more desperate. We are going to inundate and overwhelm the food systems we have.”
In September, Lutz said, the Sacramento Food Bank served about 330,000 people. By November, demand from CalFresh recipients could nearly double that number.
Jackie Rose, who runs a food closet out of her nonprofit, Rose Family Creative Empowerment Center, said the Sacramento Food Bank already had pledged to increase her capacity. Still, she said, she is expecting that families won’t be able to get as much as usual because of the increased demand
“With the poverty that our families already live in, these kinds of things only set them back and put them in a position not to win,” Rose said.
Need to find a food distribution site near you? Visit the websites for Yolo Food Bank, Sacramento Food Bank Feeding the Foothills. or Yuba-Sutter Food Bank.
A crisis without flames or floodwaters
At the county’s emergency operations center, Lutz said staff are meeting virtually every day to track data, manage the flow of resources, determine potential bottlenecks and coordinate responses.
“We are in virtual mode because our offices are spread across the county, so it just makes sense,” Lutz said. “But if we get into the situation where we’re really moving a lot of resources around quickly and we need continual communication, that’s typically when we would go to an in-person (operation).”
The Sacramento Food Bank supplies about 200 hunger relief partners across the county. Feeding the Hungry supports around 80. Heinrich said her organization has been meeting weekly with county and state officials to monitor supply and prepare for rising need.
Heinrich and Rose said the end of each month always brings increased demand: Not all families are able to stretch their CalFresh benefits or paychecks to cover what the food they need for the whole month.
About half of households headed by a single parent face food insecurity, Heinrich said, and her team also is seeing an increase in families affected by layoffs.
“We have a saying around our food bank,” Heinrich said, and that is “’We can all be one job loss, one illness or one natural disaster away from needing food assistance,’ either short term or long term.”
At mobile food distribution sites, known as PantryToGo, Heinrich said, people are weighing choices like: Do I pay a utility bill, or do I buy food? For seniors, she said, it could be: Do I get medicine, or do I get food?
If someone is out there weighing that kind of choice, Lutz urged them to call 211 and ask about whether there’s financial help available. It may take time to get to an information specialist, county spokesperson Janna Haynes said, because budget cuts have affected staffing.
Mental health now part of the response
Sacramento County also is considering where it should station behavioral health staff, Lutz said, to ensure residents have someone who can advise them on how to manage their stress. The county already has a mental health urgent care at 2130 Stockton Blvd. and 11 adult outpatient clinics in various neighborhoods. Or, call 988.
CalFresh enrollees should ensure that they do what’s necessary to maintain their benefits, county and state officials have said in their statements, and those who need this vital resource should apply for it despite the delay in funds. Doing so will ensure your paperwork is processed and ready to go when the spigot turns back on.
Not all CalFresh recipients receive their benefits on the same day. They are usually paid between the first and 10th day of each month, depending on the enrollee’s date of their eligibility. Still have money on an EBT card? Keep in mind that many farmers markets in the Sacramento region will double the money you spend there.
The blurred line between natural and economic emergencies has never been thinner. Food banks are operating like FEMA field teams. Sacramento County officials stand ready to coordinate and pay for convoys of volunteers and supply trucks.
State officials are advancing funds that food banks would have gotten later in the budget cycle, Lutz said, but that brings a new worry: What will food bank leaders do when they need this money later in their fiscal cycle?
Calls for compassion and action
As food banks, counties and states prepare to test how far their disaster apparatus will stretch, they are issuing several calls to action to residents who wish to help:
Give cash: For every $1 donated to Feeding the Foothills, Heinrich said, they are able to feed six meals to families. They buy in quantities most people could not imagine, Lutz said, so a donation of even 15 to 20 cents can make a meaningful difference for a local family.
Donate unexpired food: Before donating canned goods, check to see whether it’s a good idea. Food banks have to dedicate staff to sorting those cans, and if expired cans are donated, they cannot distribute them and must pay to dispose of those goods.
Volunteer: Email or visit their websites to find out whether help is needed. Keep in mind that, while many small pantries or food closets may need extra help, large organizations may have volunteers already scheduled through the end of the year.
Practice patience: Expect long lines and traffic around food distribution sites.
“We’re all in this together,” Lutz said. ‘This is going to impact all of our communities — our neighbors, our friends, the families down the street. We’re asking for patience, compassion and understanding.”
