No Family Plans to Need a Food Bank
Roseville, Calif.- Something has changed in kitchens across our three counties this month, and our neighbors are going to feel it before the year is out.
A new federal rule that took effect June 1 puts CalFresh out of reach for tens of thousands of Californians who can't meet stricter work requirements, a group that now includes older adults, parents of teenagers, veterans, and people living without a home. The deepest cuts arrive in the fall, when as many as 55,000 to 60,000 Californians a month could lose their benefits. What's happening here tracks with what's happening everywhere else. More than 3.5 million people have lost food assistance since last summer, and a growing share of what the program costs is landing on states and counties that were already stretched thin.
It's easy to lose people inside numbers like those. I keep thinking instead about the faces behind them.
Roseville Impact
Six months ago in Roseville, a woman pulled up to a PantryToGo distribution with three kids in the back seat and the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her husband had just left. She was looking for work and trying to sort out her next move one decision at a time, and she told us she didn't know where else to turn. She had heard there was food, so she came. As we loaded her car, she looked at us and said, "Thank you so much."
She is not a stranger in some far-off place. She is our neighbor and she deserves dignity rather than judgment. The cuts taking hold this year mean a lot more families are about to find themselves in that same spot, hoping someone is still there when they pull up.
For us at Feeding the Foothills, none of this is abstract. When food assistance shrinks, the need behind it doesn't go away, it just walks through our doors instead, in the form of longer lines and heavier boxes and a lot of families having a much harder month. We're bracing for more neighbors this year, and a good many of them never imagined they would have to ask anyone for help.
I won't pretend Feeding the Foothills can fill that hole on our own. For every meal we put on a table, federal food assistance puts out nine, so when those benefits vanish the gap is far bigger than our shelves can cover. That's why your gift and your voice both carry so much weight right now. Food banks across California are already feeding more people every month than they did at the worst of the pandemic, and the line is still growing.
But what I know about this community is that when times get hard, the foothills show up.
We are one of only 200 Feeding America member food banks in the entire country, and that connection gives us real muscle to draw on. The rest of our strength comes from people, the food partners and volunteers and donors who keep showing up. This community has already weathered a pandemic, more than a few brutal wildfire seasons, and grocery prices that won't quit, and we'll get through this stretch the same way we always have, one meal and one neighbor at a time.
Help Local Families In Need
If you've been looking for a way to help, now is a good time to step in, and your gift stretches further than you might expect. Every $1 provides 6 meals for neighbors right here in the foothills, which is groceries on a table this week for a family in our own community.
Donate online via Feeding the Foothills.
Hunger is a problem we can actually tackle when we face it together. Thank you for standing with your neighbors.
Feeding the Foothills (Formerly Placer Food Bank)
Feeding the Foothills is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization, Tax I.D. #94-1740316