Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization

Coming Soon to a County Near You: No Asset Test for Food Stamp Applicants with Children  Click here to find out more on the upcoming change to Food Stamp eligibility for households with children.  Get the flier here.

2009 "School's Out...  Who Ate" Summer Food Report  CFPA's annual report on summer nutrition has just been released.  This year's report highlights the decline of summer school California is witnessing this summer and its impact on nutrition for low-income children.  Click here for more info and a link to the report.

 Find Summer Food Sites in your area.  Click here.

Letters of Support Needed for AB 627: Improving Nutrition in Child Care!  AB 627 will be heard in the Senate Education and Health Committees in the coming weeks.  Please submit letters of support ASAP.  Click here for a sample letter template for the Education Committee and here for the Health Committee.  Click here for more info on the bill.

New Numbers: How Many are Income-Eligible, but Not Participating in Food Stamps in YOUR County?  Based on the Program Access Index for 2007, find out how many people could possibly receive food assistance in your county -- but are not!  Click here to find out.

Conference Committee Rejects Elimination of CFAP!

As previously reported, the budget conference committee was seriously considering the elimination of the CFAP, the immigrant food assistance program.  (see last alert).  Thanks to your calls this valuable program will remain in place.

Budget Conference Committee Votes to Eliminate Finger Imaging!  In a smart fiscal move, the committee voted 6-3 to eliminate the costly and redundant finger print system for food stamps and CalWORKS.  If approved in the final budget, this action would finally remove a problematic procedural barrier that has been preventing eligible people from getting the help they need. More details soon!

The Food Stamp Program was designed specifically to help families maintain an adequate level of nutrition, and the program’s complexity allows it to tailor benefits to those with a greater need. Families with high costs associated with housing, child care and medical expenses can deduct qualifying costs, allowing the expenses to be offset in part by higher food stamp benefits. As a rule of thumb, for every $3 in deductible expenses, food stamp benefits increase by roughly $1, up to the maximum benefits allotment for the household. This new report assesses potential changes to California’s approach to the program's  dependent care and medical deductions as a means of maximizing nutrition resources available to the state’s low-income individuals.

Reauthorization Rundown!  We've recently updated with our Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization page with new information, current actions, and more.  Click here for more.

California County Food Stamp Program Access Index (PAI) for 2007

PAIs are used to estimate the extent to which low-income people are participating in the Food Stamp Program.  For more details on the PAIs and rankings for counties in 2007 go here PAI page

CFPA White Paper on Direct Certification and Direct Verification 

How can California ensure school meals for children in need?  Improve direct certification, implement direct verification and include Medi-Cal in the process.  Read this comprehensive examination of the current process and see the resulting recommendations for providing California’s children with adequate nutrition:
Executive Summary, Full White Paper

Final County-by-County Stimulus Package Estimates  Click here for an estimate of what the final stimulus package, signed by President Obama,  will mean for your county in terms of food stamp benefits and administration.  The 13.6% benefit increase should go into effect April 2009!

Food Stamp Forum Recap We had our 10th Food Stamp Forum on February 10th, 2009.  Click here to read all about it, see pictures from our event and download forum materials!

Advocate for your County to be in the Healthy Purchase Pilot  Tell the Department of Public Health to move forward with the plans for the Healthy Purchase Pilot because your county is interested in being a pilot county.  Use Food Stamp Program to improve the health of your community, increase local economic activity and support California agriculture.  Get more information and the sample letters here.

CFPA's 2009 Legislative Preview  With economic troubles worsening and the state budget deficit deepening with each passing day, the outlook for low-income families in California looks grim.  Struggling families are having a harder and harder time being able to afford healthy, nutritious foods.  Click here to take a look at some of the policies we'll be looking at advancing in 2009 to help families meet their nutritional needs.

Advocate for asset test removal for ALL applicants to Food Stamps!  Click here to get the new CFPA flier that tells county offices and community organizations what they can do to help advocate to remove the asset test for ALL Food Stamp applicants as soon as possible!

See how much school meals served have increased from the 2006-7 school year to the 2007-8 school year.  Almost all counties have seen an increase in total meals served -- much of the increase is in free and reduced price meals served!  More California kids are needing school meals and most of them are low income!  To see the increases, click here.  For more detailed data, click here.

Just in time for holiday-related media work as well as holiday-related advocacy, CFPA has released an analysis of trends in the current economic downturn and how they are affecting low-income Californian's ability to afford a healthy diet.  Click here for more info including county-specific data profiles you can use in your community.

The Governor signed (and vetoed) important nutrition bills!  Click here to read our latest alert for an update on how bills we've been tracking this session fared.  Highlights below:

Governor Signs AB 2300!  Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation to make it easier for kids to enroll in free and reduced price meals at school.  This legislation will make California an innovator in the use of Medicaid  data to enroll kids in school meals.  Thanks to all involved in the effort, most notably, Phyllis Bramson-Paul at the California Department of Education and Assembly Member John Laird.  More details soon.

Governor signs AB 433!  After years of advocacy, food stamp applicants in California will no longer be denied help because of assets or savings!  This action comes just in time as so many families are struggling. In addition, the Food Stamp Program in California will now have new name.  Thanks to all who helped in this long and successful effort.  Check out Governor Schwarzenegger's signing message here.

Governor signs AB 2726! This bill to move the Healthy Purchase Pilot forward was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger on Saturday, September 27th.  Thanks to all who helped in this effort --  with special thanks to Liz Mooney and Assembly Member Mark Leno for carrying this issue through to a successful conclusion.  More on the remaining nutrition bills soon.

But, it wasn't all good news.  As expected, the Governor vetoed AB 2844 (paper reduction for welfare and food stamps).  In addition, the Governor vetoed AB 2704, which would removed two barriers to increasing access to water at schools.

Read our alert for more info.

 New Report: Recess from the Recession: How School Meals Can Do More to Help Struggling Families  More and more struggling families in California are relying on the federal food assistance programs, including school meals. With school going back into session, CFPA has just released a report highlighting recent economic woes and the importance of school meals for low-income families.  The report also includes a number of policy recommendations for local, state, and federal officials.  Executive Summary  Full Report

Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization:  CFPA has recently released our list of policy priorities presented in the upcoming reauthorization.  Click here to access our reauthorization homepage.

 2008 Summer Food Report: CFPA recently released its annual summer food report, School's Out... Who Ate?  Click here for a press page with press releases and other useful information to get the word out in your community.

How does rising food prices effect low-income Californians nutritional needs?  Click here for more info.  Click here for an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee by CFPA's Director of Legislation.

County Nutrition Profiles:  CFPA has updated our county profiles with the most recent data available on poverty, hunger, food insecurity, and other nutrition-related figures as well as participation data for the federal food programs for each county.  Click here to learn more about your county.

New Report on County Food Stamp Program Administration:  CFPA recently published a study analyzing how counties administer the Food Stamp Program.  Click here to read this report.

Millions of Californians live in households with an adult who struggles to put food on the table.  A new report by CFPA, Shared Tables, Shared Struggles, examines how food insecurity and hunger impacts the entire household.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but many children in California are not realizing its benefits.  CFPA's new report, Running on Empty: A Report on the School Breakfast Program in California, finds that 50 of California's 58 counties have school breakfast participation rates at or below the national average and that over 500 schools with significant low-income populations fail to even provide breakfast.  The report highlights a number of policy recommendations to remedy these problems. 

2.5 Million California adults struggle to put food on the table.  Click here for the latest food insecurity and hunger data from the California Health Interview Survey from UCLA.  This report also finds many of those experiencing food insecurity are not getting food stamps.  Action is needed to improve the food stamp program so please participate in the national call-in day.

....visit our Nutrition Action Newsletter by clicking here.

www.cfpa.net