California families face growing food insecurity as SNAP (CalFresh) disruptions and rising living costs squeeze households. Surveys show that three in 10 residents — and half of low-income Californians — have cut meals, while nearly three in four families with young children struggle with basic needs. Experts warn hunger undermines student attention, behavior and college completion; advocates urge state action to sustain school supports and community-based services as federal cuts loom.
Hunger Tightens Its Grip on California Students — SNAP Delays and Policy Cuts Could Make It Worse
This year has been unusually hard for Rosalba Ortega and her family in Bakersfield. Ortega, a farmworker and grandmother, says her two granddaughters, ages 4 and 7, lack warm coats for the walk to school during a cold, soggy winter. With rent and food prices rising and farm work scarce, delays to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — known in California as CalFresh — during last month's federal shutdown arrived at a particularly dire moment.
"There's not much food for them," Ortega said in Spanish. "We have to look for low prices to buy for them. Sometimes the shelters give us food and that helps us a lot."
Disruptions Where Families Are Already Struggling
Ortega's situation reflects a broader pattern across California: interruptions to SNAP amid the recent shutdown coincided with growing financial strain for many households trying to meet basic needs. An October survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that three in 10 Californians — and half of lower-income residents — reported cutting or reducing meals to save money.
Researchers warn that hunger and economic hardship affect children’s ability to learn and can influence whether young people enroll in or complete college. "What’s happening out of school can have a huge impact on their ability to learn while they’re in school," said Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, director of TK–12 policy at EdTrust-West.
How Food Insecurity Shows Up in Schools
Evidence indicates children’s attention and school performance suffer when benefits run out mid-month and families shift to cheaper, ultra-processed foods, according to Martin Caraher, a food policy expert at City University London. "You see it in behavior and performance at school," he said. Educators and campus basic-needs centers report more students seeking help not because of a single crisis, but because cumulative cost pressures — rent, utilities and food — have made everyday survival harder.
Policy Changes Add Pressure
Federal policy changes are compounding these pressures. Legislation passed by Congress in July included cuts to SNAP and Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California), which advocates say could reduce federally funded food and health supports for low-income students and families. The Trump administration also proposed shifting more education responsibilities to states, which could change federal supports for schools and vulnerable students.
Wheatfall-Lum said the federal government has reduced staff and scaled back programs that support migrant students, multilingual learners, students experiencing homelessness and students of color. She urged California to protect state programs and funding that help vulnerable students, including the school funding formula that directs extra resources to low-income schools and investments in community schools.
Young Families and College Students at Risk
Stanford University's RAPID California Voices survey (July) found nearly three in four families with children under age six reported difficulty meeting one or more basic needs — including food, housing, health care, utilities and child care. Philip Fisher, director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, warned that economic hardship increases parental stress, which in turn harms young children’s well-being.
Fisher noted that supports expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic — such as the enhanced Child Tax Credit, higher SNAP and WIC benefits, and stimulus payments — reduced material hardship; as those programs expired, hardship rose again.
College students are also struggling. At California State University, Long Beach, Danielle Muñoz-Channel, director of the campus Basic Needs center, says students increasingly come for ongoing help because they “just can’t afford it anymore” — not because of a single job loss or crisis. Without reliable basic supports, students risk delayed graduations or failing to complete degrees that could break cycles of poverty.
"I’m worried about how it will affect our most needy students who use college to break generational cycles of poverty," Muñoz-Channel said.
What Can Be Done
Advocates urge California leaders to: preserve targeted school funding for low-income and vulnerable students, continue support for community schools that connect families to services, and consider state-level policies to backfill federal cuts. Strengthening local food assistance, supporting campus basic-needs programs and protecting children’s health coverage are among practical steps policymakers can take to reduce the immediate harm while addressing longer-term economic pressures.
