AB 1952: Social services: access to food.

Existing law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), administered in California as CalFresh, under which each county distributes nutrition assistance benefits provided by the federal government to eligible households. Existing state law authorizes a county to deliver CalFresh benefits through the use of an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) acceptance system.

Existing law, until January 1, 2022, encourages the Regents of the University of California, requires the Trustees of the California State University, and authorizes the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, to designate as a hunger-free campus each of the institutions respective campuses that meet specified criteria, including having a campus employee designated to help ensure that students have the information they need to enroll in CalFresh.

This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, the State Department of Public Health, the State Department of Education, and the Department of Food and Agriculture, to develop a plan to end hunger. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to serve as the lead agency for the development of the plan. The bill would require the plan to be distributed to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2020, and would establish criteria for the plan, including that the plan establish a budget of $11,500,000, contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or other measure, for the Department of Food and Agriculture to support local food hub efforts. The bill would also require the plan to request the Regents of the University of California, and direct the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, to develop systems that allow EBT cards to be used on their respective campuses, and present a report to the Assembly Select Committee on Campus Climate on the progress that has been made, by July 1, 2019.