Officials make workforce training part of CalFresh eligibility

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(The Center Square) – California officials say workforce training programs are a way to keep CalFresh beneficiaries eligible for the taxpayer-funded program.

CalFresh, which is known nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is paid for by federal taxpayer dollars. Federal rules imposed earlier this year aimed to reduce the number of people eligible for the food assistance program. The Trump administration added a requirement that SNAP recipients work or be enrolled in school at least 80 hours a month or roughly 20 hours a week.

The California Department of Social Services recently announced that those in workforce training programs would be eligible for CalFresh.

Programs can include adult education, apprenticeships and career and technical education programs, according to the department. It is unclear how much the expanded means of eligibility would cost taxpayers.

“Increasing access to qualifying activities is critical not only for helping people continue receiving CalFresh benefits but also strengthens California’s long-standing commitment to supporting employment, education, training, and economic stability and mobility,” Scott Murray, deputy director of public affairs and outreach programs for the Department of Social Services, told The Center Square via email on Monday afternoon. “These efforts build on significant investments the state has already made to expand, strengthen, and modernize workforce development programs so that Californians have more accessible and effective career pathways.”

While more people qualifying for CalFresh does mean higher costs to taxpayers, allowing those who need the assistance to continue to qualify for the program might not be such a bad thing, said Wayne Winegarden, an economist with Pasadena-based Pacific Research Institute.

“These are the technical, yet important details of government, and that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen,” Winegarden told The Center Square on Monday. “We now have a defined program so that people who are on CalFresh can fulfill the work requirements. Obviously, the proof would be in the pudding, but that’s what you want to see.”

Approved programs that teach people professional skills they can use to get a job could lift people out of poverty, Winegarden added. “That should be the goal, and this feels like to me that this is a bureaucratic process doing what it’s supposed to do."

Lawmakers allocated roughly $4.6 billion to CalFresh in the state budget this year, with $1.9 billion coming from the state’s general fund, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.

Those who receive food benefits from the program also qualified for a recently-restarted California Fruit and Vegetable Electronic Benefit Transfer program, which allocates up to $60 every month to beneficiaries to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. The beleaguered program, which has run out of money twice before, recently got a $20 million cash infusion of taxpayer funds, The Center Square previously reported.

The latest effort to expand eligibility for CalFresh follows federal rules that would have kicked 47,000 people off the program starting in October of this year. Roughly 3.4 million families were expected to still be eligible for CalFresh benefits after those cuts took effect. It's unclear how many of those 47,000 would be eligible with the addition of the workforce training for eligibility.

Lawmakers who sit on CalFresh-related committees in the Legislature did not respond to The Center Square on Monday or declined to comment.