THE MARIN COUNTY Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the allocation of $800,000 to the Marin Community Foundation and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank to supplement the loss of federal food assistance amid the government shutdown, which has gone on for 35 days.
Funds for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, ran dry on Saturday, putting the 41.7 million Americans who depend on SNAP in jeopardy.
In Marin County, there are 15,500 residents that receive SNAP benefits, known as CalFresh, including 4,277 children and over 3,000 older adults, according to County Executive Derek Johnson.
Last week, the nonprofit Marin Community Foundation launched a fundraising campaign called Food on Every Table with a goal of raising $3.3 million, the amount needed to supplement the county’s CalFresh program throughout November. The foundation seeded the fund with $500,000. Now, the county will contribute another $200,000 each week for four weeks.
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank will support the logistics, using their GiveCard platform to distribute gift cards that can be used to purchase groceries. Marin County Health and Human Services will share data on CalFresh program recipients to make sure the cards are going to the appropriate people.
Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said that he is just learning how many people are impacted in his district.
“Last week in East San Rafael, San Rafael City Schools reported that 2,500 individuals and 1,500 families were going to be impacted by the SNAP change the next day. This was on Thursday,” he said. “Subsequently, I learned that over 600 people in West Marin are going to be impacted. I think at that level it really makes it real.”
On Monday, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency contingency funds to keep the SNAP program running. Partial payments will come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s contingency fund, about $4.65 billion, which is about half of the amount normally spent on the program each month. Benefit amounts will be smaller. The USDA confirmed it is complying and plans to begin issuing partial benefits by Wednesday, though exact timing may vary by state.
The USDA must notify states of the effective date of the reduction and by what percentage the SNAP allotments are to be reduced. States then must recalibrate their distribution system for the benefit reductions. For some states, that could take weeks or even months, according to a court order issued Monday by a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.
While the court-ordered use of contingency funds provides critical short-term relief from a full suspension of food aid, long-term uncertainty remains. The government shutdown continues, and SNAP funding is still at risk of disruption if broader budget agreements are not reached.
“I think we are clearly seeing the first of what will continue to be a crisis and assault on the social safety net that we have in this country” said Marin Community Foundation director Rhea Suh at Tuesday’s meeting. “It is requiring every community, and hopefully every individual in every community, to really think about our own responsibilities in a profoundly different, but hugely important way. The choices that we make now will be choices that will matter, and it’ll also not necessarily obviate the choices that we have to make in the future.”