New easier rules to sign up for food stamps
As the coronavirus tears through the Bay Area, small businesses are closing, workers are getting laid off and food security concerns are rising. But a series of temporary policy changes are making it easier for lowincome people to sign up for CalFresh, the state’s food stamps program.
The changes come at a time of unprecedented demand for the CalFresh program, with record signups week after week since shelter in place.
The goal, said Liz Gomez, the Alameda County Community Food Bank’s client services director, is “making the program easier to access and helping people stay on the program.”
An executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom waives certain reporting requirements, so beneficiaries won’t have to prove how much money they earn to continue getting food stamps.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently informed states they can disregard the usual interview requirement when someone applies for food stamps. Now, California county officials are currently awaiting guidance on how to implement the change.
It’ll be a significant weight lifted for applicants, who can sign up at www.getcalfresh.org in about 10 minutes, said Meg Davidson, the San FranciscoMarin Food Bank’s director of policy and advocacy.
“Administratively, (the interview) is a huge barrier. It’s the place where most people fall out of the process,” Davidson said.
Food security advocates had been anticipating a rule change the Trump administration issued in December to place more strict work requirements on people ages 18 to 49 without children. The rule would have effectively cut off 700,000 from receiving food stamps through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It was set to kick in April 1, but a federal judge blocked it last month, noting that food stamps are particularly important during a pandemic.
“That is huge because that was a real threat to people who would be required to register for work and may not have been able to,” Gomez said.
Similar waivers are in effect for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in California. People can now apply over the phone instead of in person and defer health screenings. If someone is already enrolled in WIC, benefits will automatically load.
“Those are all very critical in allowing us to provide uninterrupted services to our WIC families,” said Priti Rane, director of nutrition services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
More changes are expected to come to CalFresh and WIC, too. Among them: California is asking the federal government for permission to allow CalFresh beneficiaries to use their food stamps for groceries purchased online, given many people want to avoid physically going to stores during the coronavirus pandemic.
With shelter in place’s shifting timelines, it’s unclear how long some of these measures will last. The CalFresh interview waiver, for example, currently runs through May. The CalFresh reporting waiver expires in midJune. Rane said the WIC waivers were recently extended until May 31, and she wouldn’t be surprised if they get extended again.
Concerns about food access — coupled with concerns about crowded grocery stores — have made a social media post about SNAP and WIC go viral. The post urges people to avoid grocery stores April 13 because that’s when people’s benefits kick in, then instructs people to not buy items with a WIC logo on the price tag.
Experts said the post isn’t exactly accurate in California. CalFresh benefits are staggered between the first and the 10th of every month and WIC benefits are timed with one’s enrollment date, so there wouldn’t necessarily be a dramatic rush of people at stores in the first three days.
But the note about the WIC logo holds weight. Davidson said the list of items people can use WIC benefits for is extremely narrow. Those who may be concerned about those in the WIC program getting access to those foods might avoid buying products with that label.
“You have to get a specific weight and kind of bread, a specific weight and kind of milk,” she said. “The fear is that because of the hoarding people were doing, those specific items would be gone by the time WIC recipients would be able to go and use those benefits.”
But that could change, too. Rane said the state applied for a waiver that would allow for more food substitutions. Other states that have received them, for example, now enable WIC beneficiaries to buy any kind of milk instead of just lowfat milk. She said she hopes California’s waiver comes through by the end of next week.