BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES Senator McGuire, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 608 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Gordon | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |----------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------------| |Version: |February 24, 2015 |Hearing |June 9, 2015 | | | |Date: | | |----------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------------| |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Mareva Brown | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: CalFresh: school meals. SUMMARY This bill adds specificity to the list of food programs required be compiled and made available by counties and directs that the list be distributed to families applying for CalFresh benefits. It additionally requires counties to inform applicants that, if the household is approved for CalFresh benefits, young children are income eligible for the WIC Program and that all children in the household are directly certified for free and reduced school meals. This bill also requires the Department of Social Services (CDSS) to inform all CalFresh households annually about the summer meal program, as specified. ABSTRACT Existing law: 1) Establishes under federal law the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is administered in California through the CalFresh Program to low-income families and individuals meeting specified criteria. (WIC 18900 et seq.) 2) Establishes, under federal law, eligibility requirements for receipt of SNAP benefits, including income that is at or below 130 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and is determined to be a substantial limiting factor in AB 608 (Gordon) PageB of? permitting a recipient to obtain a more nutritious diet, as specified. (7 CFR 273.9) 3) Establishes the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program) in federal and state statute with the goal of providing positive health outcomes to children who are at nutritional risk. (7 CFR Section 246.7, HSC 123280) 4) Provides that any child who is eligible for federal SNAP benefits is automatically certified to receive free school meals without an additional application. (7 U.S.C. 2020(u)(2)(A)) 5) Requires a CalFresh application to be processed within 30 days from the date of application, and requires county welfare departments to make information related to expedited CalFresh benefits, as specified, available to each applicant upon an initial application for CalFresh. (WIC 18911 (a-c)) 6) Requires each county welfare department to compile a list of emergency food providers in the area served by the CalFresh office. Requires the list to be made available upon request and may be used to refer individuals to emergency food assistance sites. (WIC 18911 (e)) This bill: 1) States a series of Legislative findings and declarations about food insecurity, including: Over 2 million children in California live in low-income families and are in danger of experiencing hunger. California is home to more children living in poverty than any other state in the country. Child development experts have found that even one incidence of hunger can impact a child's health and future academic success. Research conducted in California has found that most families do not apply for public assistance AB 608 (Gordon) PageC of? until they are already experiencing hardship from unmet basic needs. Federal law requires states to directly certify children in a CalFresh household for the National School Lunch Program and state law requires all public schools, except charter schools, to serve a free or reduced-price school meal during the school day. In California, the process for a family with children to be directly certified can take up to three months and a school meal may not be received through direct certification while a CalFresh application is pending. During the summer months, child hunger increases with the absence of school meals and the lack of information about summer lunch programs for children. It is the intent of the Legislature to reduce opportunities for children to go hungry by requiring increased coordination between CalFresh and child nutrition programs administered by the State Department of Education. 1) Adds to the required list of emergency food providers created by a county human service agency, supplemental food assistance providers, including local nutrition assistance programs, as specified. 3) Requires that the list be updated based on information that the county human service agency is provided from emergency and supplemental food assistance providers, cities, school districts, summer lunch providers, the California Department of Education, and the WIC Program. 4) Requires that the list be made available to households applying for CalFresh. 5) Requires a county human services agency to inform households applying for CalFresh that, if the household is certified for CalFresh, children under five years of age in the household are income-eligible for the WIC Program, and all children in the household are directly certified for the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program without further application, as specified. AB 608 (Gordon) PageD of? 6) Requires CDSS to inform all CalFresh households annually, prior to the end of the school year, about the summer meal program using information the department receives from the state Department of Education and a method deemed appropriate by the department. 7) Requires CDSS to implement the change through all-county letters or similar instructions beginning no later than March 1, 2016, until regulations are adopted and to adopt regulations implementing this act on or before October 1, 2017. FISCAL IMPACT An analysis by the Assembly Appropriations Committee identified likely minor state-reimbursable local costs (GF) for counties to update their emergency food provider lists and provide information to applicant families with children. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION Purpose of the bill: According to the author, research has identified multiple negative effects of childhood hunger. Children who experience even one episode of hunger are more likely to incur development impairments that limit their physical, intellectual and emotional growth, the author states. A CalFresh application is required to be processed within 30 days, but the author notes that 30 days can be a long time to wait for a child to receive hunger relief. Additionally, the author states that more than one-third of applicants for CalFresh are denied nutritional benefits, and roughly 80 percent of those families may have children who qualify for free and reduced school meals or a Summer Lunch program. This bill would help to close this gap by informing families with children about child nutrition programs that they are eligible for while their CalFresh application is pending so that no child goes hungry, the author writes. Food Insecurity AB 608 (Gordon) PageE of? According to data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research's California Health Interview Survey, at least 4 million low-income Californians struggled with food insecurity during 2011-12. Researchers find that food-insecure adults face higher risks of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and depression and poor mental health. In a 2012 Gallup poll, one in 5.5 people surveyed, or 18.2 percent, answered affirmatively the question: "Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?" CalFresh Administered in California as CalFresh, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) SNAP program funds 100 percent of food benefits to eligible households nationwide. The state, counties and federal government share the cost of administering the program. The maximum gross income allowed to be eligible is 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or $26,117 for a family of four in 2015. An average monthly benefit for a CalFresh recipient in 2014 was $141.99 per month, or $4.73 per day. More than 1 million Californians were added to the CalFresh caseload between 2010 and 2013, at the peak of the Great Recession. Nonetheless, this state has been ranked last in the country for years in SNAP participation rates, prompting concerns from the USDA and two Legislative hearings in 2014, including a joint Senate and Assembly Human Services committee hearing on March 11. Just 57 percent of eligible individuals were enrolled in the program, compared to a national average of 79 percent in 2011. Only 44 percent of California's eligible working poor families received CalFresh benefits, while the national average was 67 percent. Analysts have calculated that every $5 of federal SNAP benefits generates $9 of local economic activity. WIC and Free and Reduced School Meal programs California's WIC Program is a federally-funded health and nutrition program for women, infants, and children. It provides funds to purchase healthy supplemental foods from WIC-authorized vendors, provides nutrition education, and offers help finding healthcare and other community services. To receive benefits, AB 608 (Gordon) PageF of? pregnant women or mothers of children up to age five must meet income guidelines. According to the California Department of Public Health, 84 WIC agencies provide services locally to more 1.45 million participants each month at more than 650 sites. The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. Impact of safety net programs A study published in May 2015 by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that safety net programs reduced the poverty rate from 29.1 percent to 13.8 percent in 2012 and lifted 48 million people above the poverty line, including 12 million children. Correcting for underreporting reveals that the safety net also did more to reduce deep poverty than previously shown, although 11.2 million Americans remained below half the poverty line. Researchers also identified SNAP, or CalFresh, as the most significant safety net program: "Among programs limited to people with low or modest incomes, SNAP (formerly food stamps) has the greatest poverty-reducing impact, lifting 10.3 million people out of poverty in 2012. SNAP also lifts more Americans out of deep poverty (5.2 million) than any other means-tested program."<1> Impact of poverty on children In recent years, a number of researchers have documented the impact of poverty and deep poverty - those living at half the federal poverty level - on children. In 2011, Stanford University researchers recently published a study entitled "The Long Reach of Early Childhood Poverty," which compared young children that had incomes of at least twice the poverty line during their early childhood with poor children and found that --------------------------- <1> Safety Net More Effective Against Poverty Than Previously Thought: Correcting for Underreporting of Benefits Reveals Stronger Reductions in Poverty and Deep Poverty in All States, Sherman, Arloc and Danilo Trisi, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, May 6, 2015 AB 608 (Gordon) PageG of? poor children completed two fewer years of schooling, earned less than half as much money, worked 451 fewer hours per year, received $826 per year more in food stamps, and are nearly three times as likely to report poor overall health. Poor men are more than twice as likely to be arrested. Related legislation: AB 2115 (Bradford, 2014) was substantially similar to this bill. It died in the Senate Appropriations Committee. COMMENTS This bill differs from AB 2115 in several ways: It removes the requirement for counties to provide information to CalFresh applicants about how to enroll children in the WIC and National School and Breakfast programs while the CalFresh application is pending application to a family who qualifies for the WIC program, and instead requires that families are told that they may qualify for those programs. This is intended to reduce the bill's costs. It requires counties to make available to all CalFresh applicants the list of food and nutritional programs that the counties already compile, and removes the requirement that CalFresh applicants ask for the list in order to receive it. It requires CDSS to inform all CalFresh households annually, prior to the end of the school year, about summer meal programs, using the information it receives from the state Department of Education, in a manner to be determined by CDSS. PRIOR VOTES ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Assembly Floor: |77 - | | |0 | |-----------------------------------------------------------+-----| |Assembly Appropriations Committee: |17 - | | |0 | |-----------------------------------------------------------+-----| |Assembly Human Services Committee: |7 - | | |0 | AB 608 (Gordon) PageH of? ----------------------------------------------------------------- POSITIONS Support: Western Center on Law and Poverty (Sponsor) California Association of Food Banks California Catholic Conference Inc. California State PTA Courage Campaign First 5 California National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter South County Collaborative St. Joseph's Family Center Sunnyvale Community Services 3 Individuals. Oppose: California Department of Finance ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT The Western Center on Law and Poverty, a co-sponsor of this bill, writes that while "more than one-third of applicant households are denied aid, the children in those homes may still qualify for the National School Lunch Program or a Summer Lunch site in their area. AB 608 helps bridge the gap between hungry bellies and federally funded meals for CalFresh applicant households by informing families with children about the child nutrition programs they are eligible to receive. The steps it takes to reduce the likelihood of child hunger by improving coordination between our publically funded child hunger relief programs are modest, but helpful." Additionally, Western Center on Law and Poverty writes that CalFresh applicants may wait 30 days for their benefits to be approved and 60 days for direct certification into the free and reduced meal program. This bill will provide families with a list of resources to alleviate childhood hunger during that time. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION The California Department of Finance writes that, while it finds AB 608 (Gordon) PageI of? "unknown but likely minor administrative costs for counties," it finds the bill unnecessary because a list of emergency food providers and other resources currently is provided to CalFresh applicants, upon their request. It also notes that currently 97 percent of emergency and standard CalFresh applications are processed within the required 3 and 30 day application windows. -- END --