SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - SLO Food Bank is bracing for significant cuts to an important funding source at the same time demand for its service is increasing across San Luis Obispo County.
"We're anticipating the real possibility for this summer, beginning in July, is that CalFood, a program that we rely on and really is such a strong partner in helping feed our community will have significant cuts for the coming state fiscal year," said Molly Kern, SLO Food Bank CEO.
"Right now, CalFood helps us ensure that more than half of the food distributed by the SLO Food Bank is fresh food, so it's fruits and vegetables, tortillas, other fresh basics, milk and eggs, things that we all need, and think of as basic groceries. Those are funded through CalFood."
With the state leaders currently going through the budget process, CalFood funding is potentially facing a cut that could wipe out tens of millions of dollars that would go towards providing food assistance throughout the state.
"The proposed budget for CalFood is a 90% cut from what we received last year," said Josh Wright, California Association of Food Banks Government Relations Director. "We received $80 million last year. The governor's proposal is currently at $8 million. We're still early in the process, so the May revise is yet to come out, and the final agreement is yet to come out, but right now we're faced with that funding cut. We are already serving six million Californians per month, up from 4.5 million that we served during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so our food banks are already facing increased need. A cut of that large of magnitude at right as we need it most would be very difficult for our food banks as we try and meet this moment."
As for what it could mean for the SLO Food Bank, Kern pointed out it would present difficult challenges for the non-profit organization, as well as many community members and local businesses.
"For our food bank, there's hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts right now," said Kern. "It would be the most significant cut that we would be facing in the coming year and it really does impact those things that are most valuable to our community. It would also not only just impact our food banks ability to purchase, it would impact the bottom line of local farmers and other food producers that we spend this grant through."
"It would have ripple effects that would go well beyond just our food bank and the people that we serve, but really into our agricultural and food producing community across the State of California."
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