BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 608
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|Author: |Gordon |
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|Version: |February 24, 2015 |Hearing |June 9, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mareva Brown |
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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,
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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
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<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
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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
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|Assembly Floor: |77 - |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |17 - |
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|Assembly Human Services Committee: |7 - |
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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
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"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.
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