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.

Here’s a simple question with a complicated answer: Why are there so many seniors and people with disabilities who eat at the St. Anthony’s Free Dining Room?

In order to answer that question, you have to talk about SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income / State Supplemental Program) benefits and how they relate to hunger and poverty for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

Here in San Francisco, there are about 45,000 low-income seniors, blind people,  and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP benefits.  SSI/SSP provides a very basic standard of living for people who are unable to work because of age, blindness, or disability.  Single SSI/SSP recipients receive $845 per month (93% of the federal poverty level), and couples receive $1,407 per month (115% of the federal poverty level).

SSI/SSP recipients in California are ineligible for the Food Stamp program (which has recently been renamed “Cal Fresh”).  As a result of recent budget cuts, SSI/SSP recipients have seen their benefit levels cut three times over the past two years, have lost their yearly “renters rebate” of $347.50, have had the cost of living adjustment to the state-funded portion of their grant eliminated, and have received no cost of living adjustment to the federally-funded portion of their grant in either 2010 or 2011.

Seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP have also seen their out-of-pocket contributions to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program increase and have lost access to dental benefits altogether.

Here at St. Anthony’s, we see many seniors who are able to afford rent in the small rooms in the single room occupancy hotels of the Tenderloin, but being able to afford food is a struggle. This struggle is explained in more detail in a recent report from San Francisco’s Food Security Task Force.

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has proposed a further reduction ($15 per month) to SSI/SSP benefit levels. If you’d like to speak out against this cut, visit our advocacy alert page.