Copyright San Diego Union-Tribune
Kimberly Hjaltalin’s job is to feed the country’s troops in training, serving meals to military recruits at San Diego’s Marine Corps Recruit Depot as early as 4:15 a.m. But with her employer three weeks into a government shutdown and Congress at an impasse on how to end it, she’s worried about how she’ll feed herself. Hjaltalin relies on CalFresh — California’s name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, also known as food stamps — for the federally funded food benefits that help low-income people eat. She has been unable to work recently because of a spinal injury and has run out of paid medical leave. Even if she could work, she wouldn’t be getting paid — hers is among the thousands of federal jobs going without pay because of the shutdown. So she relies on CalFresh to eat. “I need that CalFresh so bad,” she said. The shutdown is threatening access to SNAP, one of the country’s largest social safety nets for people with low incomes. About 42 million Americans use it, including 5.5 million in California and 400,000 in San Diego County. Unless Congress somehow strikes an agreement to fund the government by Thursday, Hjaltalin and millions of other Californians will not get their next month’s SNAP benefits starting next week. Californians can still use CalFresh benefits that are left over on their EBT cards from previous months. For thousands of San Diegans, that disruption to food benefits may only compound another looming threat: Many federal workers may miss out on their first full paycheck Friday since the shutdown began. In San Diego County alone, there are 64,500 civilian federal workers, in addition to 111,000 active-duty military and 258,600 other federal defense workers, according to Rep. Scott Peters’ office. Local food nonprofits have already been ramping up operations to help serve federal workers in San Diego County in light of the shutdown. In the absence of federal food benefits, those nonprofits will step in to fill the gap. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is deploying the California National Guard to help food banks with distributions, similar to during the COVID-19 pandemic, and said he would fast-track $80 million in state aid for food banks. The Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank is anticipating an immediate $500,000 in additional costs to respond to the CalFresh disruption — costs it says it can cover thanks to donors. It doesn’t currently expect to need National Guard support. “San Diego has always stepped up in times of crisis, and we’re confident our community will do so again,” the food bank said on its website. Feeding San Diego has distributed 40,000 more pounds of food this month than usual in light of the shutdown, said spokesperson Carissa Casares. Since the government shut down, the organization has held special distributions by request at Camp Pendleton, a military housing complex in Point Loma and a site near the San Diego International Airport specifically for Transportation Security Administration workers. It has also expanded hours to its free food marketplace, which people can visit monthly for about 36 pounds of groceries, with specific new hours for federal workers. “We really do treat this as emergency response, much as we would a natural disaster or public health emergency,” Casares said. “The last time we activated on that scale was the pandemic.” Feeding San Diego plans to dip into reserves if necessary to meet the higher demand with SNAP delays. But she said it would be “incredibly challenging” for nonprofits to absorb all of the 400,000 people around the county who rely on CalFresh. “Nonprofits are really being asked to cover large portions of the safety net, and during this time, it really shows how people need somewhere to turn … when they need help,” Casares said. “We are here, and we’ve been here … but we really need the government’s support.” Toni Silva came to the Don Diego VFW in Barrio Logan at a food distribution event Wednesday to pick up produce for her and her family. She applied for CalFresh one day before the shutdown began, and she has yet to hear back from a caseworker about her application. Silva’s family relies on one income, as she stays at home to care for her 1-year-old. They also depend on WIC, another federally funded benefit program that pays for healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and more for pregnant women and caregivers of children under 5 years old. The funding status of that program is also up in the air due to the shutdown. Millions could miss out on their WIC benefits starting Nov. 1 if the White House doesn’t step in with emergency funding, the National WIC Association warned Tuesday. “We’re just kind of hanging in there and winging it,” Silva said. Where you can get food if you’re impacted by the shutdown
