SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Between the rising cost of living and federal cuts to food assistance programs, many San Diego families are struggling to get by.
To help bridge the gap, the City Heights Community Development Corporation gave out dozens of groceries on Wednesday as part of its "Feeding City Heights" program. Every two weeks, the organization provides San Diegans with gift cards, vouchers, and emergency groceries.
Organizers say the demand for help is rising fast. Federal changes that took effect April 1 now block some immigrant families, including refugees and asylum seekers who are in the country legally, from receiving food assistance money through programs like CalFresh.
"We saw that the needs for this program when the government was shut down for a while and our community was being denied or there, there were not, there was no access to SNAP and EBT benefits," Javier Gomez, chief advising officer for the City Heights CDC, said.
In just the past week, the organization says calls for help have jumped.
"In City Heights, we are 1/3 born population, so our community is highly refugee asylum seekers, immigrants," Gomez said.
The City Heights CDC is currently working to expand its services to the northern and southern parts of San Diego County. The resource is open to all county residents.
"We're gonna be serving about 200 people, uh, and that's just here in one of our properties, and we're serving about over 500 families, um, within our, uh, 14 different affordable housing properties," Gomez said.
For residents like Medina Husen, the support offers consistency that many families are now losing.
"I am a student and it helps so much, saves me money," Husen said.
"It’s an additional great resource as a, as a student for me to feed my family because, um, you know, every other Wednesday I know that I have, you know, food coming up," Husen said.
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