California Hunger Action Coalition

CHAC: A strong track record

CalFresh

  Recent Policy Wins

  • $15M secured in the 2023 Budget Act for a CalFresh Minimum Nutrition Benefit Pilot to improve benefit adequacy for CalFresh households.
  • AB 712 (W. Carrillo) passed, requiring CDSS to seek all available federal waivers to allow CalFresh recipients to use their benefits to purchase hot and prepared foods at the grocery store. 
  • Food4All: Secured funding for individuals 55+ to receive food benefits, regardless of immigration status 
  • Investment of 9M to fund financial incentives for CalFresh households to purchase grown fruits and vegetables at participating retailers.
  • $3 million to extend a CalFresh pilot to buy safe drinking water.

  Previous Policy Wins

  • $5M for state Nutrition Incentives that enable California to draw down federal matching funds and together double the value of CalFresh benefits used at farmer’s markets.
  • Draws down some $275M in CalFresh benefit by investing $9M in the State ‘heat and eat’ program (Energy Assistance Subsidy Benefit) that triggers higher benefit levels.
  • A historic end to the SSI “cash-out” policy in 2019, which barred SSI (Supplemental Security Income) recipients from applying for CalFresh.
  • Removed burdensome reporting requirement for older adults and people with disabilities
  • Added the Disaster CalFresh Program into statute and established various requirements of the Department of Social Services and County Human Services Agencies to respond to the need for emergency food assistance in times of disaster
    (AB 607 Gloria)
  • Repeal of the lifetime ban on CalFresh, CalWORKs and child care for those with a felony drug conviction.
  • Extended CalFresh to households with incomes up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level through Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility.

School meals and Summer EBT

  Recent Policy Wins

  • Achieved more than $146.8M in new investments for SUN Bucks (Summer EBT) outreach, automation, and administration to allow California to provide an estimated $1 billion in federal food assistance for summer 2025.
  • Secured $1.9 billion to continue the School Meals for All program, ensuring children have access to free meals at school.

  Previous Policy Wins

  • Achieved more than $300M in new investments to fully implement and ensure free school meals for all children and co-sponsored SB 348 (Skinner) which was signed by the Governor and requires California to fully maximize Summer EBT,
    codifies new federal school meal nutrition guidelines, and requires the state to propose recommendations to allow adequate time to eat school meals.
  • In 2021 California became the first state in the country to pass School Meals for All, and in 2022-2023 we wrapped up our first school year where all children in California could receive two free meals a day at school. Not only
    do these universal school meals help every child in California get the nourishment they need to learn and thrive, but it has led to better outcomes for Black and Latinx children, who disproportionately suffer from food insecurity.
  • Emergency funding for school nutrition programs
  • Expansion of free and reduced-price school meals to all charter schools in California.
  • Increased access to school meals by implementing Medi-Cal Direct Certification statewide and maximizing federal provisions to offer free lunch and breakfast to all students in high-poverty schools (SB 138 McGuire)
  • Prevention of harmful treatment to school children when their families are unable to pay an unpaid debt to their school food services provider by establishing state standards for collection unpaid fees (SB 250 Hertzberg)
  • $2M for grants to fund school breakfast programs.

California Food Banks

Recent Policy Wins

  • Secured 60M one time for CalFood to support the purchase of CA-grown and produced foods for CA food banks.
  • Accomplished permanent authorization of State Emergency Food Bank Reserve language to allow food banks to meet families where they are during times of crisis.

Previous Policy Wins

  • Secured $180M one-time for CalFood over 3 years, enabling food banks to purchase California-grown foods to distribute across their communities.
  • Healthy Food Donation Tax Credit – Helped secure a five-year extension for donations of food to food banks.
  • We have advocated for CalFood, COVID-19 response, and Climate and Capacity funding throughout the years:
  • The CalFood program was established around 10 years ago. For many years it was funded at 8M per year, then through a lot of collective advocacy, we increased state funding for the 22-23 year to 120M and to 60M for the 23-24 year. 
  • Secured a one-time support of $5.5M for food bank capacity grants, and $110 million one-time investment for the food bank COVID-19 response 
  • Secured an unprecedented $165M and National Guard personnel for food banks in response to COVID-19
  • Successfully advocated for food bank capacity and climate resilience by securing $182 million one-time funding to ensure food banks can meet the need and remain operational during disasters

Strengthening the Poverty Safety-Net

    We supported

  • Diaper Bank advocacy : We helped to secure $9 million to fund local diaper distributions for low-income families with infants and toddlers, for 11 food banks and community organizations in 2024 and secured 7.4 million in 2025 .
  • Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2021 for large employers and by 2023 for small employers.
  • Introduction of the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers.
  • Expanding eligibility for comprehensive Medi-Cal health coverage to all youth regardless of citizenship status.
  • SSI recipient advocacy:
  • Grant increase of 8.6%, effective January 2024 for SSI/SSP recipients.
  • A one-time Cost of Living Adjustment for those on Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment program (SSI/SSP), the first reinvestment after a decade of cuts.
  • $40M in matching state funds for counties to create SSI advocacy programs to house individuals during the long application & appeals process, improving their chance of success.
  • CalWORKS advocacy:
  • $500 million in ongoing funds beginning in 2024-25 to turn a temporary 10% grant increase into a permanent grant increase to support California families struggling the most.
  • A 10% increase to the Maximum Aid Payment for the CalWORKS program – the largest one year increase in the California grant in at least 40 years.
  • Repeal of the Maximum Family Grant in CalWORKs (TANF) that denied cash aid to babies born into families already on the program.
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