SANTA ANA, Calif. 鈥 One week the food pantry had frozen crabmeat; other weeks, deli meat or plant-based 鈥渕eat.鈥 The week before the Fourth of July, there was no meat at all, and a reminder that the pantry would be closed the next two weeks.
Even though she never knows exactly what she鈥檒l get, Lesli Pastrana is grateful for the Mercado El Sol food pantry. She has frequented it ever since she lost her job in January. On a recent Friday, she walked away with produce, eggs and staples like ramen noodles, pasta and oats.
She and her husband are both in the United States without legal authorization. Before the pandemic, they got by with their wages and the food stamps they received for their two young children 鈥 both U.S. citizens.
But now that Pastrana has lost her job at a bowling supplies factory where she worked 10 years, and her husband has been downgraded to part-time work at a warehouse, the couple must save every dollar for their $1,500-a-month, two-bedroom apartment in Tustin. Pastrana is looking for a single room to rent for her family of four. She鈥檚 worried about her kids.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them to focus on the fact that I don鈥檛 have a job right now,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know the magnitude of the situation, but they can sense the worry.鈥
Additional food stamps could help lighten Pastrana鈥檚 load and cut down on trips to the food pantry, but like all undocumented immigrants in the U.S., she and her husband are not eligible for these benefits, despite having worked and paid taxes here.
Democrats in the state legislature this year proposed opening California鈥檚 state-funded food stamp program 鈥 which serves about 35,000 authorized immigrants who don鈥檛 qualify for federal food stamps 鈥 to all income-eligible Californians, regardless of immigration status. The cost of the proposed expansion, starting in 2023, was put at about $550 million a year.
But after negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom鈥檚 administration, the proposal was pared down to a two-year, $30 million project to update the state food aid program so it can accept applications from some of the in California, should the program be extended to them in the future.
A in the legislature would expand the food stamp benefit to the undocumented once the system is updated and the legislature has appropriated funds for the expansion.
For now, the state has not committed to expanding the program. But the legislature鈥檚 efforts this year put California at the forefront of extending food aid to unauthorized residents. Advocates say the state has a responsibility to help feed them, especially since toil in California鈥檚 fields, feeding the state and the rest of the country.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e working and risking their lives, not just through the pandemic, but right now through a heat wave,鈥 said (D-Sanger), co-author of the bill, whose district is in the Central Valley. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e risking their lives to provide food for us. Why wouldn鈥檛 we invest in them as well?鈥
The program would be expensive, and the state would have to foot the whole bill. Right now, California is flush with a $76 billion surplus, but state revenue can swing wildly. For instance, the pandemic鈥檚 economic restrictions had the Newsom administration just the year before.
California has already expanded eligibility to undocumented immigrants for its Medicaid health coverage program. Since last year it has allowed people under age 26 to participate , at a cost of roughly $450 million annually. Starting in 2022, unauthorized immigrants age 50 and over will be eligible, and the state鈥檚 annual costs are expected to grow to $1.3 billion by fiscal year 2024.
Up to 1 million unauthorized immigrants would meet the income requirements for food stamps, according to advocate Jared Call of Nourish California, which co-sponsored Hurtado鈥檚 bill. But the program would likely begin by offering the benefit to subgroups such as children and seniors.
To qualify for food stamps in California, most families would have to earn 200% or less of the federal poverty level for their household size. For a family of four, this would mean grossing no more than .
The governor鈥檚 office declined to comment on the 鈥淔ood for All鈥 proposal and its funding, citing ongoing discussions with the legislature to finalize the budget.
Conservatives have expressed caution. Republican state senators voted as a bloc against Hurtado鈥檚 bill. In an email explaining his 鈥渘o鈥 vote, Sen. Brian Jones (R-Santee) said it asks California taxpayers to 鈥渂ear the burden of a chaotic border situation that is a federal responsibility.鈥
In the Assembly, where committees are debating the bill, member Steven Choi (R-Irvine) suggested the program鈥檚 generosity would compound problems at the U.S.-Mexico border by encouraging people to try to immigrate to California.
Even Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, are wary of making commitments they can鈥檛 keep. Food for All would need to be in case revenues lag or other spending increases, according to an Assembly budget report.
, which Newsom was expected to sign Monday, includes other measures to make food available to poor people, regardless of immigration status, including more investment in food banks and a to all California public school students, regardless of income.
The crushing demand for emergency food assistance during the pandemic put a spotlight on food insecurity. In California, said they went without sufficient food during the first three months of the pandemic lockdown, up 22% from before it began in March 2020, according to a study by researchers at UCLA鈥檚 Fielding School of Public Health and Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Food banks in response doubled or tripled their food distribution. Schools, closed for classes, kept cafeterias running so families could drop by every week for free breakfasts and lunches. Nonprofits scrambled to organize emergency grocery deliveries for those sick with covid-19.
But people behind these efforts say charity food giveaways are stopgap solutions that often distribute unhealthy food, result in massive waste and rob people of choice.
鈥淔ood banks get 鈥 I don鈥檛 want to say 鈥榟and-me-down food鈥 鈥 but they often get food near its expiration date,鈥 said Claudia Keller, chief mission officer of Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange County. 鈥淔ood that might be high in sugar, salt and fat. And that, to us, is a disservice to the most vulnerable in our community.鈥
Advocates say there is a better solution to hunger: Simply give families cash or stamps to buy their own food.
Vanessa Ter谩n of , on California鈥檚 Central Coast, said this is why her organization, which primarily serves undocumented immigrant farmworkers, switched from organizing food drives to raising money for prepaid grocery cards.
鈥淧eople are able to buy what they need, and also there鈥檚 a shopper鈥檚 dignity,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey can make choices for their own families that best meet their needs.鈥
The same approach was taken by the federal benefits program 鈥 known nationally as SNAP and in California as CalFresh and often called food stamps 鈥 which mails beneficiaries grocery-usable cash cards that automatically reload each month.
Undocumented immigrants make up an estimated 8.1% of California鈥檚 workforce, according to a 2019 summary of data from the think tank. A 2019 analysis by the nonpartisan California Budget & Policy Center estimated the state鈥檚 undocumented immigrants .
Hurtado praised her colleagues鈥 decision to expand Medi-Cal to more groups of undocumented immigrants, saying 鈥渉unger and health go hand in hand.鈥
鈥淭he foundation for good health is having access to adequate food, and healthy food,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut I think that something is better than nothing, and I鈥檓 happy with the progress that we鈥檙e making.鈥