SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Thousands of families across San Diego are about to see a major hit to their grocery budgets as they lose their CalFresh benefits starting April 1st. A new federal law is changing who qualifies for the program, and communities are bracing for the impact.
For years, CalFresh has been a lifeline for people trying to make ends meet. Now, 13,000 people in San Diego County are expected to lose those benefits and will no longer be able to use their EBT cards to purchase food.
"Food is a basic human right, and if someone is not able to get it for themselves, we don’t want to make it harder for them to get food," Carissa Casares, director of communications for Feeding San Diego, said.
The new law will be a phased rollout. The changes target non-citizens, including refugees, asylum seekers, and others who previously qualified for the food assistance.
"As they recertify which people have to on this program at various points throughout their time with the program, they would then effectively be told they are no longer eligible and would no longer receive benefits," Casares said.
For many families, that benefit means the difference between being able to put food on the table and skipping groceries altogether.
"People being cut off from their benefits, we anticipate seeing more people at our food distributions," Casares said.
Local food banks like Feeding San Diego have already seen an increase in people asking for help because of the cost of living and inflation. With these CalFresh benefit changes, they are focused on helping those directly impacted.
"We need to keep an open dialogue with those non-profits, particularly in areas that are serving high populations of asylees and refugees, and understand what that increase really is on the ground and then make sure on the flip side we have the food ready to go," Casares said.
Officials with Feeding San Diego are urging people to update their information because some may still qualify if their immigration status has changed. If you are in need of assistance, the organization does not have requirements and does not ask for citizenship status.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
