Contra Costa College keeps students fed after SNAP accounts run dry

Cuts to SNAP has Joseph Agredano feeling anxious. 

He is one of more than a quarter of a million community college students enrolled in CalFresh, the state’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That assistance has been paused since Saturday, because the Trump administration stopped sending states money during the government shutdown. 

SNAP funds are expected to flow again soon, after two federal judges on Friday ordered the administration to resume the payments. In the meantime, Contra Costa College is making sure students know about its pantry, free meal program and other measures to ensure they have options while they are waiting for CalFresh benefits to resume. 

Agredano said CalFresh has been critical to his success studying music education at Contra Costa, allowing him to afford more nutritious groceries. 

“It allows me to buy leaner protein and have easy access to fresh produce,” Agredano said. 

CalFresh recipients may experience “a period of hardship” before receiving retroactive payments, Jennifer Hogg , senior research manager at the Policy Lab, said in an interview.

On Monday, the administration told a federal judge in Rhode Island that the government would restart SNAP but pay recipients only half of their allotted amounts.

For Contra Costa College students, there are additional resources, said Hope Dixon, who oversees the food pantry there.

“ I remind students that our food pantry is open five days a week,” Dixon said.

The food pantry is one of the many food resources at the college, which enrolls nearly 6,000 students. Students can also order groceries and pick them up in one of 20 refrigerated food lockers in the cafeteria. Additionally, the school provides a free lunch program, and hosts a free fresh produce pop-up market on the first and third Monday of the month, in partnership with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. 

The school also has a stash of emergency food gift cards for students in a need of immediate assistance. Dixion finds some students are reluctant to ask for help when they need it because they fear Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or they’re not sure they qualify for the assistance. 

“For some folks, being in this situation is scary, because they aren’t used to being in a position of needing assistance,” Dixon said. 

Removing a stressor

These resources are part of a surge in efforts to address student hunger. In 2019, the California Policy Lab found that an estimated 297,400 of students across the University of California and California Community College system were eligible for CalFresh, but didn’t seek benefits. 

In 2021, legislators allocated $100 million to the state’s community colleges to help address food and housing insecurity. Colleges used the money to improve outreach to students, provide application assistance and hire staff to help students access safety-net programs, including CalFresh. 

Hogg said enrollment in CalFresh at community colleges rose by about 2 percentage points between 2012 and 2023, to about 14%.  The average community college student participant gets about $125 a month.

“ We are seeing it as a strategy to help students focus and stay enrolled in school. It’s one less stressor to worry about, knowing that they have enough nutritious food to eat,” Hogg said. 

Now the gap in funds has some students questioning CalFresh’s reliability. 

“I heard that the government shut down, so I thought that my application wouldn’t even go through,” said Enrique Chaires, a second-year student at Contra Costa studying kinesiology.  

Chaires applied anyway and is waiting to hear back. He said getting a boost for groceries would be a great help. 

Dixon, who oversees the college’s food pantry, encourages students to continue to apply despite the government shutdown. According to the California Department of Social Services, people can submit an application for CalFresh but may not be able to access benefits until federal funding issues are resolved. 

That’s why Agredano, the music education student, is worried. The interruption in CalFresh benefits isn’t just hitting him, but also his mom.

“It’s affecting me,” he said, “because I am worrying about whether she is going to be able to get the nutrition she needs.”

This story was updated to correct the spellings of Joseph Agredano’s and Jennifer Hogg’s names, the amount of student monthly benefit and the percentage increase in community college student participation in CalFresh.)

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