Visit the action center for more about our current advocacy efforts.

Legislative Advocacy

We engage with the California Legislature and California’s congressional delegation to influence and advance bills before they become law. Through legislative advocacy, we:

  • Ended the finger-imaging requirement for households enrolling in CalFresh
  • Brought healthy beverages to children in California's licensed child care facilities
  • Ensured that all K-12 students in California’s highest poverty schools have access to free breakfast and lunch each school day
  • Guaranteed that charter school students with low income have access to at least one free or reduced-price school meal each day just like their peers in all other California public schools

Administrative Advocacy

We engage federal and state administrators to leverage their significant power in setting rules for the programs under their jurisdiction and setting policy outside of the legislative process. We recognize that administrators shape the interpretation and implementation of the laws we work to get enacted. Through administrative advocacy, we helped:

  • Ensure that children who participate in Medi-Cal can be automatically enrolled to receive  free and reduced-price school meals
  • Generate public comments that paved the way for litigation to fight a racist, classist, xenophobic change in immigration policy
  • Secure program flexibilities that allow schools to serve free meals to all children in every community during the COVID-19 crisis
  • Reach more than 3.5 million children with an estimated $1.3 billion in nutrition assistance benefits through Pandemic EBT

A Community of Advocates

Our small team works with dogged determination to bring about systemic change, but we don’t do it alone. Our success is rooted in collaborations across a dynamic, multifaceted community of advocates striving to make California a place of wellbeing and opportunity for all. Each year, we rely on a coalition of partners to shape our policy priorities and advance shared goals. Learn more about our process for policy development.