The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, also known in California as CalFresh,provides eligible individuals with monthly financial assistance to purchase healthy food at grocery stores and some farmers' markets.
CalFresh offers a lifeline for many full-time students to have access to food when needed, and during the pandemic, that access was made even easier for students. However, there are some changes in effect that could impact college students who use the program.
“Two criteria that were included with the student exemptions were if your family contribution was zero or if you participated in work-study. With the rolling back of those COVID-era waivers, those are no longer used to qualify you as an eligible student," said Venessa Rodriguez, SLO Food Bank CalFresh outreach manager.
This means students will have to identify alternate eligibility criteria to remain in the program.
“If you already are currently enrolled, if you had applied and were enrolled prior to June, you should have a year until you had to do your recertification. At that point it will be reassessed if you still qualify under the student exemption," added Rodriguez.
But there’s good news for college students.
According to the Cal Poly CalFresh director, AB-396 went into effect in October 2022, which redefined LPIE (local programs that increase employability) to include academic majors as eligibility criteria.
This expands eligibility significantly for college students and at Cal Poly, about 90% of undergraduate majors are eligible under this provision.
If students don’t qualify for CalFresh, there are other resources like the SLO Food Bank.
“We offer free food distributions throughout the month at 50 locations throughout the county. You can find information about those food distributions through our website," said Andrea Keisler, SLO Food Bank community programs director.
SLO Food Bank staff says if you don’t know if you qualify, it’s best to just apply and see if you do.
To apply for CalFresh, you can do so online through getcalfresh.orgor reach out to your local department of social services office.
