October 2, 2026
We are proud of this historic win, which ensures that all Californians ages 55 and over can get the food that they need. The Food4All coalition is celebrating being one year away from this historic change and continuing to fight to make it happen for all Californians, no matter their age.
Food4All is a statewide movement and policy advocacy campaign to ensure everyone who calls California home has access to the food they need, regardless of where they were born. Together with a coalition of more than 100 organizations across the state, we are fighting for immigrant inclusion in our food safety net.
Immigration status should never be a barrier to accessing our basic needs, like food – yet, our food assistance programs continue to discriminate against many immigrant communities based simply on where they were born. Food4All is working to change this. No exceptions, no exclusions, no delays.
Everyone deserves access to food, yet immigrants have been targeted with exclusions from our food safety net for decades. The federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PRWORA, or “welfare reform”) severely restricted immigrants’ access to public benefits, including nutrition assistance through SNAP (now called CalFresh in California). In response, California established the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) in 1997. CFAP is a state-funded version of CalFresh that exists to provide benefits to some immigrants who were shut out of food assistance due to PRWORA. Today, it serves about 53,000 “qualified immigrants” – this mainly includes individuals with green cards who have been here less than 5 years. You can read more about who is and is not eligible for CFAP today on the CDSS website.
CFAP still excludes many Californians based on their immigration status. Undocumented immigrants, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and certain visa holders have never had access to this critical food benefit. This means that more than one million Californians across the state are shut out of life-saving food assistance.
This number is growing with recent federal actions. The enactment of Trump’s H.R. 1 creates new exclusions from CalFresh for many previously eligible immigrants, including refugees, asylees, trafficking survivors, survivors of domestic violence with pending petitions, and individuals granted humanitarian parole. Individuals granted humanitarian protection have survived extreme violence and upheaval to rebuild their lives in our state. After our country told these communities they would be welcome here, the Trump administration chose to strip them of their social supports and target them with harmful policies. Immigrants with humanitarian protection began to have their food benefits stripped away in California beginning April 1, 2026.
CalFresh is our strongest anti-poverty program. In 2024, it kept 850,000 Californians out of poverty, connecting them to the food they need while stimulating local economies. When families have enough to eat, children do better in school and have better health outcomes in the long-term. Our communities are stronger when we all have access to the resources we need to thrive, without discrimination based on immigration status.
Hunger has always been urgent – with extremely high rates of hunger in California and increased violence against immigrant communities, the need to provide immediate relief and long-term inclusion is at an all-time high. As the Trump administration sows fear and chaos with anti-immigrant actions, California can build a social safety net that not only enables immigrant communities to live in our state, but to thrive here.
Food4All began in 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when advocates and our state’s leaders turned their attention toward emergency supports for people experiencing acute hunger in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, Food4All formed with a long-term vision: to ensure every Californian has access to the food they need, regardless of immigration status.
In the 2021-2022 state budget, Food4All won an initial investment in preparing our state’s food assistance program, CFAP, to deliver benefits to all income-eligible Californians, regardless of immigration status. This investment kicked off systems readiness, policy development, and an expansion of the existing CFAP team within the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). In the 2022-2023 state budget, Food4All won a commitment to provide food benefits to income-eligible Californians aged 55+, and the 2023-2024 state budget affirmed the initial implementation date of October 2025. After a two-year delay was introduced in the 2024-2025 state budget, Food4All has been fighting to protect our state’s historic commitment and ensure this expansion is implemented inclusively and equitably no later than October 1, 2027.
We are counting down together for many reasons – we cannot let the Legislature forget the promise they made to immigrant communities, we must show our incoming Governor how he can be a true champion of immigrant inclusion, we want to grow this movement far and wide across the state, and we want to prepare communities who have never had access to this life-saving benefit to know they will soon be able to receive it for the first time.
Food4All will be fighting to secure funding for this already-promised food benefit in the 2027-2028 state budget. Our movement is stronger when we all work together and choose inclusion, and food for all. No exceptions, no exclusions, no delays.
365 days of mobilizing, organizing, and holding our state accountable until this promise becomes real on October 1, 2027.