Bakersfield College (BC) Renegade Nexus Pantry and Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK) hosted a press conference with the California Association of Food Banks to discuss the need for continued funding of the CalFood Program.
According to Jared Call, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the California Association of Foodbanks, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed allocating $8 million to the CalFood program in the upcoming budget, a 90 percent drop from the previous budget cycle of $80 million. Call explained that the funding cut would significantly impact food banks’ work.
“What we’re seeing right now is really a perfect storm of hunger and hardship coming to California,” said Call. “We’ve seen federal cuts over the past year to the federal commodities program that provides food to food banks, and we’ve also seen rising food costs, transportation costs that are putting pressure on household budgets. On top of that, we’re going to see a new series of federal cuts roll out over the next few months to the CalFresh program.”…