The SNAP-funding mess makes L.A.’s food-insecurity crisis clear

A strange scene unfolded last week at the Adams/Vermont Farmers Market near USC.

Pomegranates, squash, and apples were in season, pink guavas were so ripe you could smell their intoxicating scent from afar, and nutrient-rich yams were ready for the holidays.

But with federal funding in limbo for the 1.5 million Los Angeles County residents who rely on food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — the parking lot of the church housing the market was largely empty of customers.

Even though the market accepts payments through CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program, almost no one was in line when the doors opened. The sellers mostly remained alone in front of their product stands.

A line of cars stretches more than a mile as people wait to receive a box of free food provided by the Los Angeles Food Bank in the city of Industry on Wednesday.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

As thousands of people in Southern California lined up outside food banks to collect free food and the fight over federal benefits sowed uncertainty, fewer people receiving aid appeared to be spending money at outdoor markets like this one.

“So far, we’re doing 50 percent of what we normally would — or less,” said Michael Bach, who works with Hunger Action, a food relief nonprofit that partners with farmers’ markets in the greater Los Angeles area, offering “Market Match” deals to customers paying with CalFresh debit cards.

The deal allows shoppers to purchase up to $30 worth of fruit for just $15. Looking through a ledger on her table, Bach’s colleague Estrellita Echor noted that only a handful of buyers had taken advantage of the offer.

All week, at the farmers’ markets where workers were stationed, the absence was just as glaring, she said. “I was in Pomona on Saturday – we only had six transactions all day,” she said. “Zero at La Mirada.”

CalFresh customers looking to double their money on purchases were largely absent from the downtown Los Angeles market the next day, Echor said.

A volunteer loads a box of free food for a family at a drive-thru food distribution site in the town of Industry.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“This program usually attracts a lot of people, but they’re either hanging on to what little they have left or they just don’t have anything on their cards,” she said.

The hiatus in aid resulted from the Trump administration’s decision to make only partial SNAP payments to states during the ongoing federal government shutdown, circumventing a court order to restart the funds for November. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday evening temporarily blocked the order pending a ruling on the issue by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

But by then, CalFresh had already begun charging 100% of November allotments onto users’ debit cards. Even with this reprieve for food aid recipients in California, lack of access to food remains a persistent problem in Los Angeles, said Kayla de la Haye, director of the Institute for Food System Equity at USC.

A study his team published last year found that 25 percent of Los Angeles County residents — or about 832,000 people — were food insecure, and among low-income residents the rate was even higher, 41 percent. Researchers also found that 29 percent of county residents were nutritionally insecure, meaning they lacked options for obtaining healthy, nutritious foods.

Those numbers mark a slight improvement over 2023 data, when the end of the pandemic era boosting aid programs from states, counties and nonprofits — combined with rising inflation — caused hunger rates to rise just as they did at the start of the pandemic in 2020, de la Haye said.

“It was a big wake-up call: in 2020, one in three people were food insecure,” de la Haye said. “We had huge lines outside the food pantries.”

But while the USC study shows that providing immediate food assistance through government programs and nonprofit organizations can quickly reduce food insecurity rates during emergencies, researchers found that many vulnerable Angelenos do not participate in food assistance programs.

Although the county has made progress in enrolling more eligible families over the past decade, de la Haye said, only 29% of food insecure households in Los Angeles County were enrolled in CalFresh, and only 9% in CalFresh. WICthe federal nutrition program for women, infants and children.

De la Haye said participants in his focus groups shared a variety of reasons why they didn’t sign up: Many didn’t know they were qualified, while others said they were too ashamed to ask for help, were intimidated by the paperwork involved, or were afraid to reveal their immigration status. Some said they did not apply because they earned slightly more than the eligibility threshold.

Even many of those who received assistance struggled: 39% of CalFresh recipients did not have an affordable food source, and 45% faced nutrition insecurity.

De la Haye said hunger and problems accessing healthy food have serious short- and long-term health effects, contributing to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity, as well as higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression in adults and children. Additionally, she added, when people are unsure of their finances, highly perishable items such as fresh, healthy foods are often the first to be sacrificed, as they can be more expensive.

The USC study also found stark racial disparities: 31% of Black residents and 32% of Latinos faced food insecurity, compared to 11% of white residents and 14% of Asians.

De la Haye said his team is analyzing this year’s data and will release it in December. This analysis will examine the investments Los Angeles County has made in the food system over the past two years, including the allocation of $20 million in federal funding to 80 community organizations working in everything from urban agriculture to food pantries, and the recent creation of the county’s Office of Food Systems to address food availability challenges and increase consumption of healthy foods.

“Those things that disrupt people’s ability to get food, including and especially cuts to this key program that is so essential for 1.5 million people in the county, we don’t handle those storms very well,” de la Haye said. “People are living on the edge of the precipice. »