Focus on Food Security

Regular readers of our blog know that St. Anthony’s JEVA (Justice Education, Volunteer, and Advocacy) program has been working to promote policies that simplify the process for receiving food assistance at the same time that we have worked to promote fair local and state budget practices that don’t deepen poverty and hunger in our community.

Given our history of advocacy on these topics, it was exciting to see two stories in this week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian about hunger and food security.

One of the stories is about a topic we know well: California’s low participation rate in the SNAP program (SNAP is the federal program that used to be known as “Food Stamps” and is called “CalFresh” here in California). St. Anthony’s is proud to have been involved in the advocacy efforts that have resulted (finally!) in the lifting of some of the barriers that California had put in place with the passage of AB 6 this October. The policy changes contained in AB 6 (removal of the finger imaging requirement for CalFresh applicants and implementing 6-month instead of quarterly reporting for CalFresh recipients) have been a staple of St. Anthony’s anti-hunger advocacy work for many years.

The other story also concerns a topic that St. Anthony’s knows well: the “food divide” in San Francisco that results in hunger and poor nutrition among low-income people, people living neighborhoods without access to healthy food, and seniors living on fixed incomes. I am quoted in the article explaining about how lack of health care, food, and stable housing work together to promote negative health outcomes like malnutrition and obesity. I also discuss budget cuts at the state level that have reduced the income of seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI (Supplemental Security Income) by $77 per month as compared to the benefit levels of three years ago. Currently, SSI recipients are forced to try to make ends meet at a sub-poverty income level. And, because SSI recipients are ineligible for CalFresh benefits in the state of California, they face an even greater risk for hunger and the negative health consequences associated with it.