With funding for federal food benefits set to lapse Saturday due to the ongoing government shutdown, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced Thursday it is bolstering its food-distribution efforts to provide meals for affected students and families.
“We are ramping up our efforts and ensuring that across most of our schools, supper will be available to be picked up for any child up to the age of 18,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
Due to the federal government shutdown, CalFresh benefits are expected to be delayed in November, impacting millions of people across the state, including nearly 1.5 million in Los Angeles County and more than 310,000 in Orange County.
CalFresh is the California version of the federal food assistance program also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as EBT or food stamps. The program is entirely federally funded, but is managed by states and administered by counties.
Harkening back to the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carvalho said schools that typically provide breakfast and lunch for students will now be offering dinner provisions at campuses. Beginning next week, cooked food will be available.
The district announced a website at lausd.org/foodhelp that outlines the food-distribution program and other assistance efforts available to families.
The site also provides details about the district’s Education Foundation Compassion Fund, which allows people to make donations to support families in need.
“We have a foundation. It is listed on our website,” Carvalho said. “We’ve done well through the compassion of people, whether it was to support families in need as a result of the fires, immigration support through the Compassion Fund, support to our own workforce with money and financial as well as social and emotional support. But we need more. This is a time to donate.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta visited a Los Angeles food bank Thursday and assisted with preparing food for distribution to families who are about to lose their federal benefits.
“The irreparable harm to families, food banks, our state, California businesses and our economy is immense, and it is imminent,” Bonta said of the pending lapse in federal benefits.
Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced a lawsuit seeking to force the federal government to dip into a $6 billion reserve fund to pay out November benefits.
Newsom previously deployed the California National Guard to the state’s food banks to assist with the anticipated spike in demand for meal distribution. The state also fast-tracked $80 million in state funds to help alleviate the crisis.
L.A. Care Health Plan, billed as the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, announced Tuesday it was providing $5.4 million to help provide food for impacted families. Of that amount, $5 million will go to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles and Food Forward. The funding is expected to support 10,000 to 15,000 households in the county each week in November, according to the Health Plan.
The additional $400,000 will go toward advancing food security efforts and bolstering food distribution efforts in the county.
L.A. County officials have allocated $10 million to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to expand its purchasing capacity, and to set up pop-up and drive-through distribution sites, in addition to the existing network of 940 pantries across the county.
The county Departments of Public Social Services and Children and Family Services also contributed $2 million each to support food programs.
Democrats and Republicans blame each other for the government shutdown, with Democrats refusing to vote on a budget bill without an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to keep health care premiums down. But Republicans refuse to budge on the matter, saying the health care issue can be debated later since the health care subsidies are in place until the end of the year.