BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Cal Foods program is facing a $54 million drop in annual funding. This program is responsible for providing funding to food distribution sites, to purchase fresh quality food for those in need.
- What used to be $62.7 million in funding annual could possibly change to only $8 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
- This drop affects all California food banks, not just Kern County.
- A decision regarding this funding is expected to come later this year by state officials.
In Kern County, people can get a weeks worth of nutritious meals from their local food banks. Now, a possible shift in the state funding could put that to an end.
“We receive funding in order to purchase food to bridge the gap between what’s donated and what the need is on an ongoing basis,” said Food bank administrator for Cap-K Kelly Lowery. “It’s likely the funding we’ve had over the last three years is going to be cut significantly.”
Lowery says the Cal Foods program is facing a $54 million drop in annual funding.
What used to be $62.7 million in funding annual could possibly change to only $8 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
If this cut does occur, Lowery says thousands of families are in jeopardy.
“92,000 times in one month in the month of January 2023, Kern County residents were engaging with distributions for free food in Kern County,” said Lowery. “That number has risen over 150% in the last two years and by the end of last year the number was over a quarter of a million.
Without this funding, Lowery says they will be forced to go back and rely on donations to feed people, in turn, lowering the quality of food.
“One month they could be distributing certain items and then another month they could be donating other items and so there’s a lot of volatility in that being your primary source of resources, so the cal foods program allows us to purchase which brings stability to us,” said Lowery.
Kern County food banks aren’t the only ones to be potentially affected.
“The state funding for our facility there in the Los Angeles area is about 80% of our funding. It covers not just our food but also our capacity, our employees, our building, our utilities, everything,” said President and CEO of the Food Bank of Southern California Brain Weaver.
Weaver says they could face at least a cut of $6 million in Cal-Food funding.
However, Weaver says these cuts would be severely impacting families who soley rely on these efforts.
“A lot of people will go to bed hungry. You know were seeing huge lines in some of our pantries you know some of the pantries in the LA area were seeing as many as 5-600 people lining up to get food every month,” said Weaver.
Aside from sending donations to local food banks, Lowery says there is one more option people can take to fight for the right to quality meals.
“The public can really play a big part by talking to our elected officials, our state assembly people and our state senators and urging them to follow the directive of the California Association of Food Banks and maintain our funding at the same levels its at now,” said Lowery.
It’s currently unclear if state funding will continue to be available for these food banks. A decision regarding this funding is expected to come later this year by state officials.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
