-April30,2020-
California Governor Newsom announced $3.64 million “farms to families” program with Ag Secretary Karen Ross this week. Farmers are experiencing a 50% drop in demand, and much of that food is perishable. At the same time food banks are seeing a more than 70% spike in demand. To cut food waste and feed hungry people, the state is connecting farmers and ranchers to food banks.
The Governor unveiled new funding to expand the state’s Farm to Family program, including $2.86 million from the USDA and $775,000 committed by philanthropy to jumpstart a $15 million campaign to further support the program through the end of the year. The Governor also highlighted critical expansions of CalFresh and EBT programs to combat food insecurity for low-income Californians, including a new Pandemic-EBT program for children who receive free or reduced lunch and EBT for online purchasing.
“Putting food on the table during this pandemic is hard for families on the brink,” said Governor Newsom. “It’s in that spirit that we’re expanding our Farm to Family program while also working to connect low-income families with vital resources and financial support. We thank our farmers for stepping up to donate fresh produce to our food banks. And we want families struggling to access food to know we have your backs.”
The fresh produce industry supply chain has been especially hard hit because of the perishability of the products that must be harvested, shipped and consumed in a short period of time. Nationally, the specialty crop producers estimate losses thus far at $5 billion in cancelled or reduced contracts. California accounts for at least one-half of that estimate say the Governor.
Farm to Family partners with 41 food banks serving all 58 counties, and handles the logistics of packaging the food and communicating with food banks.
Roughly 128 farmers and ranchers are donating to the California Association of Food Banks and another 200 farmers have expressed interest in participating. In March, Farm to Family distributed 14.5 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and in the first three weeks of April, distributed 18 million pounds of food. These funds will support the donation of 21 million pounds of fresh crops for the month of May.
The Governor also announced today that CalFresh recipients will receive the maximum benefits for the month of May. The continued expansion of benefits was secured through a USDA waiver that allows all households to receive the maximum allowable benefit amounts, and is a continuation of the same level of benefit received in March and April. On April 12, just over 1.3 million households received a total of nearly $223 million in additional CalFresh benefits with an average increase of $169 per households
Food insecure people will receive 20 to 21 million pounds of fresh, “high quality, locally produced” food per month. People will receive fresh food boxes. Each box feeds a family for three to four days.