Support California Anti-Hunger Bills | St. Anthony Foundation

Three bills that will help end hunger in California

AB 828 (Swanson) “The Nutritional Assistance for Families Act” will reinstate Cal Fresh benefits for people with prior low-level drug convictions.

AB 6 (Fuentes), “The CalFresh Act of 2011” will increase access to and participation in CalFresh by removing barriers and simplifying the application process

AB 69 (Beall), “The Senior Food Security Act of 2011” would set up a streamlined eligibility process for enrolling Social Security recipients over age 65 in Cal Fresh.

If you’d like to tell the Assembly Appropriations Committee that you support these bills, use the following form to send an email to the members of the committee. You can use our sample letter or you can customize the letter with your own words.

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I am writing to support three bills that will help to end hunger in California while bolstering our local economies and increasing federal dollars flowing to California.  The following three bills have passed through the Assembly Human Services Committee on April 5, 2011 and were referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and I hope that you will support each of them.

AB 828 (Swanson) lifts the lifetime ban on CalFresh assistance for people with prior low-level drug convictions.  Research demonstrates that CalFresh benefits are critical for successful community re-entry and economic self sufficiency.  Denied these benefits, individuals who have already paid their debt to society are unable to secure nutritious food for their families.

AB 6 (Fuentes) will increase access to and participation in CalFresh by removing barriers and simplifying the application process by implementing a semi-annual reporting system and eliminating the statewide finger imaging system.  AB 6 also creates a “Heat and Eat” or utility assistance initiative, allowing CalFresh recipients to automatically claim utility expenses.  This change in benefit calculation will increase benefits and remove the verification requirements associated with utility costs.

AB 69 (Beall) will establish a two-location pilot in conjunction with the Social Security Administration to test streamlined strategies to enroll eligible Social Security recipients into CalFresh.  Only 10% of eligible seniors in California participate in CalFresh and only 5% of eligible households with a Social Security recipient participate.  This legislation provides a great opportunity to test CalFresh outreach and enrollment targeted at Social Security recipients.

Not only will these bills, if enacted, help to reduce hunger in California, they also help encourage economic activity (each $1 of Cal Fresh generates $2 of local economic activity, supporting local businesses and the local tax base) while bringing more Federal benefits into California.

I urge the Assembly Appropriations Committee to pass AB 828, AB 6, and AB 69.

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