Free Republic

Nearly 3 million California households are bracing for a massive cut in CalFresh benefits next month as the federal government stops emergency funding for food stamps that was launched during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. CalFresh recipients who were receiving $281 a month are expected to get as low as $23 a month beginning in April. CalFresh is the state’s federally-funded food benefit program that helps low-income households purchase groceries. Benefits vary based on household income, size and other relevant expenses, according to the California Department of Social Services. Since March 2020, CalFresh recipients have received an additional emergency...

For freshman state Sen. Michael Rubio, coming up with the idea for his first major bill was easy. Finding the right path to victory is proving more difficult. The East Bakersfield Democrat had seen firsthand as a Kern County supervisor the impacts of rising obesity and type 2 diabetes rates in his community. The "aha" moment, he said, came while he watched a woman use funds from the state's food stamp program to buy a grocery cart full of calorie-laden sweets. His solution was Senate Bill 471, legislation to cross junk food and soda off the shopping lists of clients...

Matching hungry Depression-era Americans with farm surpluses motivated the first Federal food stamp program in the 1930s. Today, to remove the stigma of paying at the supermarket with the stamps, some 120 Million Americans get Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards (EBT) from the renamed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Applications are pouring in every day as radio and TV ads, paid for with taxpayer funds, inform the world how to get free food. Since the states administer the program for the Feds, individual states have gotten creative.