Food assistance groups brace for uncertain future with federal cuts looming

The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that passed in July imposes funding cuts and new restrictive requirements for families trying to get help paying for groceries.

Now local food access advocates are bracing for an uncertain future due to unprecedented changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — known as CalFresh in California.

Under new work-requirement rules that add people from 55-64, unhoused folks, veterans, and other groups, L.A. County could see more than 200,000 people at risk of losing their CalFresh benefits.

That’s according to LaShonda Diggs, an assistant director overseeing program and policy at L.A. County Department of Public Social Services.

“We don’t see that as reform. It’s actually regression. And in L.A. County, where the cost of living is among the highest in the nation, these restrictions are going to push thousands of people closer to hunger,” Diggs said.

Those new eligibility requirements will go into effect in California early next year.

A shopper at Crenshaw Farmers' Market

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Corleone Ham

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Bracing for impact 

Summer Vernon regularly sees firsthand how food assistance benefits can make the difference for people trying to stretch their dollars. Vernon is the senior manager of farmers' market operations for the South L.A. region at the nonprofit Food Access LA, which operates nine farmers' markets focusing on customers who rely on food assistance.

The farmers' market on Crenshaw Boulevard is gearing up for its 20th anniversary celebration.

“People have their birthday parties, they have all kinds of things there, so it’s not just a place to shop. It’s a place to exist and commune with people,” Vernon told LAist.

Melissa Gallardo-Tello, director of benefits and incentives programs at Food Access LA, said the Crenshaw Farmers' Market alone saw about 2,000 shoppers using CalFresh benefits last year. Across all of their markets, that number was 30,000 shoppers.

“We do anticipate a drop in who can become eligible. Or even if folks are already receiving benefits, we’re bracing for folks to lose access to those benefits,” Gallardo-Tello said.

Part of Food Access LA’s mission is to connect shoppers with the Market Match program, a state-sponsored resource that can double CalFresh recipients’ spending power at farmers' markets.

The Market Match supplemental dollars could be even more important soon. Federal funding cuts to food assistance benefits scheduled to take effect in the coming years could leave the state scrambling to come up with billions of dollars a year to keep its food assistance program running.

Organizers at Food Access LA said Market Match dollars spent in L.A. County generate economic impact in places outside of L.A. too. Rural communities all the way up to Kern County benefit from markets that connect directly with their farmers.

If California can’t make up that money, it could be forced to take away CalFresh benefits from more than a million residents who rely on it. Or it could reduce individual daily benefits by 25%, according to two scenarios from the California Budget and Policy Center.

Overall, Diggs said the changes to the nutrition assistance plan are a “huge alarm” for her and her colleagues at the Department of Public Social Services.

“I’ve never seen anything this drastic impact a program,” Diggs said.

About 1.5 million Angelenos currently rely on CalFresh to put food on the table.