California Association of Food Banks

Food distributionin 2023, the organization partnered with agricultural partners across the state to supply more than 270 million pounds of Food to Food Banks. This included more than 265 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and 5 million pounds of high-quality proteins and pantry essentials to keep Food Banks stocked during the unprecedented hunger crisis. The organization's farm to family operation is the state's most extensive charitable Food recovery program, working with a network of over two hundred and forty farms and aggregators throughout the state. Cafb's farm to family program operates on a reimbursement basis from its funders and floats the Food and freight costs of its membership, requiring the organization to have several million dollars of cash on hand.in 2022, the organization completed a study that identified the opportunity to move 30% more produce and highly nutritious proteins to Food Banks serving California's rural and remote communities. Year one of the pilot project met this milestone and two year program is on track to accomplish that goal.

Research & public policy the organization's advocacy team leads the fight to eradicate Food insecurity and hunger in California, advancing legislative and budget initiatives, and conducting administrative advocacy at the state and federal levels to prioritize equity in strengthening the public and charitable nutrition safety nets. In 2023 the organization advocated for robust investments in Food Banks and public benefits adequacy and improvements. Specifically, the organization worked to protect the $60 million of calfood in the 2023-24 state budget for Food Banks to purchase California grown and manufactured foods, secured funding for a calfresh minimum nutrition benefit pilot program to raise the calfresh to $50 from the current minimum of $23, and secured legislation that makes California the first state in the country to codify president biden's new federal school meal guidelines on nutrition standards, ensures that children have adequate time to eat those meals during their school lunch periods, and codifies California's commitment to maximize the new summer ebt program. Hiring its first director of research in 2022, 2023 was the first year for the organization to publish original research and begin releasing analytics on the state of Food security in California. Over the course of the year, the organization released projections about the foreseen impact of calfresh emergency allotments ending in early 2023, an analysis of sb 1383 grocery recovery models, an impact study & dashboard on the expansion of calfresh benefits to ssi recipients, and a quantitative and qualitative study of the impact of emergency allotments in California in late 2023.

Programscalfresh is California's name for snap(formerly "Food stamps"), recognized as one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the nation. The organization's calfresh outreach program supports over fifty community partners throughout the state in their efforts to enroll eligible californians, help them keep their benefits,and educate the outreach and stakeholder community. In 2023, the organization continued its outreach efforts to include disaster calfresh and pandemic ebt until the programs concluded. Activities included training and programmatic support, providing updates on policies impacting calfresh access and eligibility, and working with stakeholders to improve language access by translating and reviewing materials.

Communications & member engagement - the organization is committed to raising public and stakeholder communities' understanding of hunger and its health and social impacts. This includes uplifting the essential work of Food Banks and educating the public about Food access issues, calfresh and other public nutrition benefits, and policy priorities to permanently end hunger in California. For the first time in 2023, the organization released original research on the project impact of cal fresh emergency allotments ending, which drove the public narrative on Food security in California throughout the year. The organization provides direct support and resources to its member Food Banks through training, technical assistance, advocacy toolkits, and securing capacity-building grants and resources. The hosted virtual member programs to increase the resilience and capacity of its members by hosting professional development webinars, as well as 25 discipline-specific cross-network communities of practice to share best practices and find innovative solutions to challenges faced by Food Banks across the state.