CalFresh benefits may be delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown. Their office at Cal Poly was informed early last week by their funder, the Centers for Healthy Communities, and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS).
The delay could leave nearly 6,300 Cal Poly students without food assistance for November. This is according to a warning from CalFresh manager, Olivia Watts, who is frustrated by the situation.
“I don’t even know if I have the words for it. I’m just beyond disappointed at this point,” Watts said.
CalFresh is CDSS’s way of distributing resources from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Benefits are sent based on a list of beneficiaries from the County Department of Social Services, which is sent to Fidelity Information Services, the company that loads money onto the electronic bank transfer cards of those on the list.
In response, Cal Poly Cares is accepting applications for short-term financial assistance grants from those whose CalFresh benefits are delayed. According to media representative Keegan Koberl, applicants will need to show documentation to verify their circumstances.
The SLO Food Bank is also seeking to increase its food production to serve better CalFresh recipients in San Luis Obispo who require food assistance. Their CEO, Molly Kern, expects to feed about 12,000 new people and provide additional food to the nearly 18,000 people they already served, when their CalFresh benefits weren’t enough.
“It’s the first Monday in November that we will be sending more food out to each of our agency partners who have the capacity to serve more people,” Kern said. “We will be serving more food out at our neighborhood food distributions and preparation for more attendees, and we’re in the process of also developing additional backup plans for depending on the duration that this continues for additional support may be needed.”
Kern estimates that they already feed about 45,000 people. In a press release, the food bank encouraged people in need of food to use the Food Resources Map on findfoodslo.org.
In their announcement of the potential delay, San Luis Obispo County assured that they will provide updates as soon as possible and expect benefits to be distributed retroactively once the shutdown ends and federal work resumes.
With Congress unable to agree on a bill to fund the government, neither the money for CalFresh benefits or federal employees to process them is available.
The government has been shut down for 24 days since Republicans and Democrats in Congress can not agree on whether healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, and used by nearly 24 million people, should continue to be funded. This is according to NPR.