Current Alert

AB 6 CalWORKs and CalFresh (Fuentes, D-Los Angeles) improves access to the CalFresh program by simplifying the application process and eliminating the fingerprinting requirement for applicants. The reforms will do much to prevent hunger in our state – especially among children.
 
Demand for food bank services and other types or assistance continue to rise as unemployment stays high and poverty reaches levels it has not seen in nearly two decades. The California Catholic Conference has joined with other advocates for many years now in working to reform the method used to qualify people for food stamps.
 
California is one of only three states that require applicants for CalFresh (formerly food stamps) to be fingerprinted. Participants must also re-qualify every three months.  As a result, California ranks 48th in the nation for qualified applicants who receive assistance. (More background information is available here.)

Hunger, in the breadbasket of the nation, is simply not acceptable. Thanks, in part, to the efforts of Catholic Legislative Network members, the bill is now on the Governor’s desk. He now was until October 9 to sign it into law. AB 6 is one of our Catholic Advocacy Day bills and is closer to being made law than ever before.
 
Please take action and urge Governor Brown to sign AB 6 to fight hunger in our Golden State.