Congratulations to Alexandra Danino and Diana Jensen of the SF-Marin Food Bank who were both nominated for CalFresh Freshy Awards!
The Freshy Awards honor the actions of individual Californians and organizations from across the state that have worked diligently in the last year to improve CalFresh. Alexandra was nominated for her exceptional outreach efforts to improve enrollment in CalFresh. Diana was nominated for her leadership and impactful data analysis that led to the statewide effort to reverse the SSI Cash-out for CalFresh participants.
Government Shutdown effects on CalFresh program
The 35-day federal government shutdown earlier this winter is still affecting people who regularly receive food assistance, but the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is assuring there are no gaps in local coverage. Marin HHS issued benefits to many of those participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called the CalFresh program, on Friday, March 1st. Typically, CalFresh benefits are issued over the first 10 days of any month, but the March benefit will be a single-day event. April benefits are expected to be issued in the typical 10-day method. A flyer was developed in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese and made available to our partner organizations to share with their clients regarding the early issuance.
CalFresh expansion for SSI Clients
The CalFresh taskforce is working on developing a CalFresh Expansion to SSI Clients plan to share with the community. They anticipate holding a community forum in April. If you are interested in helping us plan, please be sure to attend the next CalFresh taskforce meeting on March 25, 2019 2-4pm at 20 North San Pedro Mt Tam Conference Room, San Rafael.
Alliance to Transform CalFresh Report
Marin County was included in an Alliance to Transform CalFresh report on Flexible Interviewing Processes. D’Angelo Paillet, CalFresh Program Manager participated in the webinar in January to talk about the Marin County Public Assistance Business Process.
More information on the webinar >
Place based strategy to enhance enrollment.
We want to congratulate the CalFresh taskforce on identifying place-based strategy as a key component to equity in Marin. Marin County Health and Human Services Acting Director/Chief Operations Officer, Hyacinth Guillermo Hinojosa recognized Social Services’ Public Assistance program for placing bilingual eligibility workers in high priority communities. This was highlighted in the HHS Strategic Plan presentation to the Board of Supervisors, Hall meetings, and communication to all County Staff. Currently, two bilingual eligibility workers are co-located at Marin Community Clinic. Public Assistance also has an eligibility worker at the Marin City Health and Wellness Center one day a week and at the Canal Alliance food pantry every Tuesday. They are in the process of building out four work stations to further expand bilingual services in the Canal. For more information on how successful these strategies are, please visit the Calfresh Livestories page.