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By Todd Cunningham, Food & Wellness Organizer
Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN)
With input from members of LA CAN’s Food & Wellness Committee
Assemblymember Lisa Calderon recently announced a new bill, AB-2299, the California Anti-Hunger Response and Employment & Training Act (CARET), which would establish a state-funded food benefits program for Californians who lose eligibility for federal food benefits because of recent changes to the those programs enacted by the Trump administration.(*1)
Last year, Congress passed H.R. 1 (the so-called Big Beautiful Bill), which, among other things, made sweeping changes to food assistance and other safety net programs.(*2) As a result, hundreds of thousands of Californians are at risk of losing food assistance, including veterans, older adults, families, people experiencing homelessness, and many others already struggling to survive. These changes to the federal programs shift costs and consequences to states while tightening eligibility in ways that ignore how people actually live. They expand work requirements and impose limits on how long people can receive benefits. They roll back longstanding protections, such as exemptions for people who experience homelessness or those unable to meet strict work requirements.(*3) These changes are a fundamental break from how the system used to work.
The expansion of rigid work requirements will hit hardest for people living without stable housing, working inconsistent hours, or navigating health challenges. These policies assume stability that people simply do not have. Research consistently shows that time-limit work rules do not increase employment—they simply increase hunger.(*3)
The federal changes dramatically defund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, federally, and CalFresh in California), which is widely recognized as the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, helping over 5 million Californians put food on the table and stabilizing families during economic hardship.(*4) In communities like ours here in Skid Row, that impact can be the difference between eating and not eating. Up to 665,000 Californians could lose CalFresh benefits, including unhoused individuals, veterans, former foster youth, and parents with children at home. These are our family members and our neighbors.
At the same time, cuts to SNAP-Ed, which is the nation’s largest nutrition education program, threaten to eliminate access to healthy eating education and community-based wellness programs that millions rely on.(*5)
For members of our Food & Wellness Committee at LA CAN, we see the consequences of these policy changes already unfolding. People are stretching meals. Skipping meals. Relying on each other to survive as food prices rise and benefits shrink. The federal changes to SNAP create a direct threat to the survival of thousands of unhoused Californians by driving hunger, creating red tape, and compounding trauma that pushes people deeper into poverty. When food is taken away, people do not suddenly stabilize. They fall deeper into crisis.
Skid Row residents who participated in LA CAN’s Food and Water Assessment consistently reported on the harrowing search for affordable, healthy food within the 50-block radius of our community and subsequently having to choose food that is convenient, but nutritionally-deficient and expensive. Recent data shows that despite local investments, one in four households in Los Angeles County still experiences food insecurity.(*6) In high-poverty areas like ours, nearly half of those already enrolled in CalFresh report they still struggle to afford enough food as living costs rise and federal support shrinks.(*7)
In cutting these programs and making these harmful rule changes, the federal government is saying they do not care if people starve. States and counties must now absorb the fallout.
AB-2299 is California’s response.
If passed, AB-2299 will ensure that when people are cut off from their food assistance benefits due to arbitrary new federal time limits and unrealistic work requirements, the state steps in so they don’t lose access to food. With a tight budget year on the horizon, this will displace funding for other necessities (like housing and healthcare)..
This week, it’s easy to make sure your voice is heard. There is a hearing on AB-2299 scheduled for April 14 in the Assembly Human Services Committee.(*8) We can't afford to sit this one out. In a state as blessed and influential as California, no one should be pushed further into hunger by policy decisions we have the power to fix.
Reach out to the members of the Human Services Committee and tell them to support AB-2299: https://ahum.assembly.ca.gov/members
Alex Lee (916) 319-2024
Sade Elhaway (916) 319-2057
Lisa Calderon (916) 319-2056
Leticia Castillo (916) 319-2058
Corey Jackson (916) 319-2060
Celeste Rodriguez (916) 319-2043
David Tangipa (916) 319-2008
Find your own state representative and tell them to support AB-2299:
https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
Watch Feeding Our Housing Insecure Angelenos, a short film LAFPC filmed in the Fall of 2024. This film highlights the important work of LA CAN and Hunger Action LA along with the community members they directly impact.
*1 California Legislative Information – AB-2299 (CARET Act)
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?billid=202520260AB2299
*2 California Legislative Analyst’s Office – Overview of Major Impacts of H.R. 1 https://lao.ca.gov/handouts/state_admin/2025/Major-Impacts-of%20HR1-082025.pdf
*3 Food Insecurity in LA County, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 2024. http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/reports/rptsbygroup.cfm?ou=ph&prog=hae&unit=ha&categoryid=158
*4 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – SNAP Fact Sheet
https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/the-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap
*5 USDA Food and Nutrition Service – SNAP-Ed Overview https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/snap-ed
*6 Food Insecurity and Nutrition Insecurity in Los Angeles County, LA Regional Food Bank, 2026 http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/reports/rptsbygroup.cfm?ou=ph&prog=hae&unit=ha&categoryid=158
*7 California Budget & Policy Center – SNAP Work Requirements Analysis
*8 California State Assembly, Committee on Human Services