On October 14th, the Food4All coalition came together for a strategic meeting to plan for the 2022 Food4All campaign. Nourish California and the California Immigrant Policy Center led partners through a strategic process to identify the legislative and budget goal for 2022. Senator Melissa Hurtado (SD 14), author of SB 464 the “Food4All” bill, stated her commitment to ensure all California immigrants have access to food assistance, regardless of immigration status. The Senator also had the opportunity to hear from two of our mini-grant partners, Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative and San Diego Youth Advisory Council on the work they do and why Food4All is important to their organization and the people they serve.
Coalition partners were able to debrief and celebrate the campaign budget win to begin the implementation of Food4All. Tia Shimada from Nourish California provided an informative presentation on current data on food insecurity among immigrant Californians. In addition, Lucia Del Puppo from Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) shared preliminary learnings of a Food4All focus group that was conducted to gather insight on the immigrant experience when accessing food assistance and to help guide the discussion for a 2022 policy development.
Coalition members also engaged in a timely policy development conversation discussing the legislative and budget goal for 2022. While the aim of the campaign is to provide food assistance to all low-income California immigrants, advocates discussed the options of implementing Food4All on an age-based criteria as laid out in the 2021-22 budget. Advocates asked hard questions, identified research needs, and relied on professional and lived experience to initiate a conversation on age-based implementation. Nonetheless, the Food4All goal remains the same and advocacy does not end until food assistance is available to all low-income California immigrants who have been excluded from CalFresh due to their immigration status. No Exceptions. No Exclusions.
We look forward to continuing the Food4All campaign in 2022 in partnership with our co-sponsor, the California Immigrant Policy Center, and a strong coalition of advocates dedicated to ensuring Food4All is a reality.
If you would like to get involved, please join our Food4All coalition!
Join the Food4All coalition here
