Amid government shutdown, Rep. Salud Carbajal visits SLO to discuss fate of CalFresh
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal shutdown froze CalFresh funding on Nov. 1, risking benefits for 42 million.
- Local providers like Meals that Connect cut staff and hours after funding drops.
- Rep. Carbajal urges use of USDA contingency funds and criticizes GOP shutdown role.
The federal government shutdown — now the longest in history — has threatened funding for the federal food stamps program that feeds millions of Americans, including nearly 30,000 San Luis Obispo County residents.
On Tuesday, Congressman Salud Carbajal came to SLO to lobby on behalf of people who need the aid and the organizations who are working to help them.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, froze on Nov. 1. The program is known in California as CalFresh.
If an agreement to reopen the government isn’t reached soon, funding for the program could soon run out.
This would impact nearly 42 million people nationwide, 5.5 million in California, more than 100,000 on the Central Coast and programs like Meals that Connect, which provides free, healthy lunches to over 2,000 seniors in SLO County daily. The program offers meals every weekday at 10 sites in the county, with deliveries on weekends.
“It’s very concerning for our seniors,” executive director Laura Kelsay said in a news conference with Carbajal on Tuesday. “They can’t get SNAP benefits, they can’t get CalFresh. ... They’re already barely getting by and not being able to get groceries is a really big deal.”
Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, visited the program’s kitchen in San Luis Obispo to discuss the federal government shutdown’s impact on food insecurity in the county.
“With the shutdown, my Republican colleagues are weaponizing hunger,” Carbajal said.
The reduction in benefits has caused more people to turn to Meals that Connect for food, but with a loss of a quarter of its funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill — which slashed $186 billion in SNAP dollars — and a complete halt in all other grant funding under the government shutdown, Kelsay said the program is struggling to serve them.
“We’re just operating from our reserve funding, which isn’t a lot,” she told The Tribune. Kelsay has been forced to lay off staff and reduce hours to extend their runway, which she estimates at no more than six months, “if we’re lucky.”
SLO County congressman fights for more CalFresh funds
SLO County CalFresh recipients spend about $6.2 million in benefits each month at local food stores and farmers markets, according to SLO Food Bank CEO Molly Kern.
After two federal judges ruled against the funding freeze, the Trump administration said Monday that it will use $4.65 billion in emergency U.S. Department of Agriculture funds to pay out partial SNAP benefits, but it will only provide half of what people normally receive and will not cover any new enrollees.
Carbajal said that is still only a fraction of the funds that could be tapped.
The Agriculture Department has a different pool of contingency funds — Section 32 funds — that Carbajal said contains $16 billion to $23 billion that Republicans are “illegally holding back.”
“That combined is more than enough to cover an entire month of SNAP benefits for those that are enrolled throughout the entire country,” he said.
The Trump administration reportedly did consider using the funds, but ultimately concluded they “must remain available to protect full operation of Child Nutrition Programs throughout the fiscal year, instead of being used for SNAP benefits,” NBC News reported. These include student school lunch programs.
However, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.”
The language echoes language found on many government websites blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
“This is a Trump-Republican manufactured crisis,” Carbajal said. “They control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. This shutdown is completely on them.”
Federal courts across the country are legally compelling the Trump administration to dip into the Section 32 contingency fund and pay up full benefits, but the pending cases are up against a timeline of dwindling SNAP resources during the persistent government shutdown.
“We just don’t know what end is in sight,” Kelsay said.
