‘Still so many unknowns’: San Diegans and nonprofits find relief and anxiety after SNAP turmoil

San Diegans breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as this month’s food stamps were being restored for 400,000 people across San Diego County. But local nonprofits and volunteers say the uncertainty and the work to combat hunger are not over.

The release of benefits followed weeks of scrambling and anxiety over the fate of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps 40 million low-income Americans buy food. About 5.5 million Californians get CalFresh, California’s version of the federal program.

For weeks President Donald Trump and his administration have declined to fund SNAP, citing the ongoing government shutdown and drawing a legal challenge from states including California. But after a judge on Thursday ordered the administration to release full funding immediately, California and other states began loading the benefits onto users’ EBT cards anyway.

Still, uncertainty about funding for the program remains as court battles continue. Late Friday, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to put the Thursday ruling on hold, turning the issue back to a federal appeals court to decide. Whether CalFresh funds will be available in December is also unclear.

“There’s still so many unknowns, and we’re learning things by the minute,” said Casey Castillo, CEO of the San Diego Food Bank. “Folks are happy … they’re now able to shop and obtain the food that they need, but they’re still concerned about what this means next month.”

The return of November benefits doesn’t mean demand for food relief is gone. Food banks are still braced to serve the tens of thousands of federal workers in San Diego County who have been going weeks without pay because of the ongoing government shutdown.

And as the cost of living remains high in San Diego, there is still an ever-present need for hunger relief. Even before the shutdown, about a quarter of San Diego County residents didn’t have reliable access to three healthy meals a day, according to the San Diego Hunger Coalition.

Over the last two months, Catholic Charities has seen a threefold jump in the number of people coming to its emergency food distribution sites, said nonprofit CEO Vino Pajanor.

Pajanor is grateful this month’s benefits are restored but worries the disruption could hurt people’s trust in the program and other government services.

“They signed up for (benefits), and now they have built a life around it,” he said. “And now the government says, ‘No, whatever trust you have in us is no good. We are not going to honor that.’”

Hunger Coalition CEO Alondra Alvarado says that San Diego has many residents who would qualify for CalFresh benefits but aren’t enrolled, and fears around immigration enforcement have exacerbated the problem.

Some immigrants are eligible for CalFresh provided they meet certain requirements. But people worry that applying for government services could put them at risk, she says, and some feel less safe grocery shopping and sending their children to school where they would be fed.

Nonprofits stepped up

Across San Diego, nonprofits and private citizens alike stepped up to help in what they saw as the largest food emergency since the COVID-19 pandemic. And even with CalFresh benefits restored for now, they plan to keep doing so.

Hunger relief nonprofits held additional food distributions and saw an influx of new donations and volunteers.

In the days before the federal government shut down Oct. 1, Castillo said the San Diego Food Bank spent an extra $1 million on top of its normal operating expenses to distribute more food in anticipation of the impact on thousands of local federal workers who wouldn’t be getting paid.

In recent weeks, it has been holding additional food distributions, including a mass distribution at Snapdragon Stadium earlier this month that served about 2,000 people.

Now, the food bank will keep holding emergency food distributions as needed throughout the shutdown, Castillo said.

On Wednesday, the Harvey Family Foundation partnered with two local restaurants — Chef Budda Blasian Soul Food and Louisiana Purchase — to serve 750 meals to people who couldn’t use their SNAP benefits and federal employees affected by the shutdown.

Armon Harvey, the nonprofit’s founder, said they still plan to distribute meals at Louisiana Purchase every Wednesday this month for federal workers.

“Our community is taking hit after hit,” he said. “And the only people that they have to lean on are community members and community-based organizations.”

Neighbors helped neighbors

Sara Cozad wanted to do something about the SNAP freeze but at first wasn’t sure what. So she started small — she decided to buy groceries for two families in her own South Park neighborhood.

On Halloween, she posted in two Facebook groups for San Diego moms, offering to pay for all November groceries for two families who have children and use CalFresh.

Cozad quickly got dozens of responses, many of them from parents desperate for help — including moms who needed food for their young children or who are homeless. Cozad got responses from moms who wanted to help, too — they offered to Venmo her money to buy groceries for other families.

Now she and her husband are sponsoring two families, buying $200 of groceries for them both each week. Every Sunday for November, she’ll go to the grocery store with them and pay for the items they load into their cart. She’s also using donations pooled from other families to have groceries delivered to families in need.

Cozad is one of a number of neighbors in South Park who have pitched in to help.

Her neighbor Vanessa “Eve” Caudillo helped start a small food distribution network for her own block, leaving flyers on the doorstep of every home offering to collect food donations and asking families who need food to reach out.

She has been collecting donations on Saturdays and distributing them to families in need on Sundays.

Even though CalFresh is back for November, Caudillo said she will keep up her food distribution network. “What they get is a pittance anyway, compared to what they need to fully stock their fridge and pantry,” she said.

And Cozad still plans to spend the $200 per family per week she has set aside to help them. If it’s not buying their groceries, she will fill up their car’s tank with gas or help with car repairs or whatever else they need.

“This is an ongoing issue with inflation and the cost-of-living crisis,” Cozad said. “It’s awesome that (food stamps) are being restored, but that doesn’t mean families weren’t struggling when they had food stamps.”

To Cozad, the one good thing that has come out of this SNAP crisis has been seeing people come together to help neighbors in need.

“With all the darkness that’s going on, just to see people showing up for each other — it’s just really beautiful,” she said.