As CalFresh halts, Stanislaus County residents and food pantries brace for impact
Thousands of families in Stanislaus County no longer will receive food benefits beginning Nov. 1 due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
Approximately 17% of county residents rely on CalFresh, a state program that distributes federal funds to low-income families. Stanislaus County’s Community Services Agency was informed by the USDA on Oct. 10 that EBT cards would not be reloaded for November.
CSA Director Christine Huber said unless the shutdown was solved on Oct. 23, the day when the state uploads benefit information for the month, there was no way to avoid a delay in benefits.
“In California, it’s almost a billion dollars a month that is issued in CalFresh benefits, and there is not a mechanism or a way for the state to cover those costs,” Huber said.
Ed Cuellar, CalWorks associate director at Stanislaus County’s CSA, said that though there have been federal shutdowns before, the circumstances now are different. “I recall it never got to the point we’re at today, where we are actually provided guidance from the federal government that appropriations are not going to be available to issue benefits.”
On Oct. 1, the federal government officially shut down, and nearly a month later, Congress looks no closer to reaching an agreement on the federal budget.
The last federal shutdown lasted 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019. During that time, the state strategized ways to mitigate impact, but benefits were never ultimately discontinued.
Beneficiaries are asking. ‘What does this mean?’
The California Department of Social Services began sending text messages to recipients letting them know that their benefits will not be loaded as usual. “We’ve started to receive some calls asking that particular question, ‘What does this mean?’” Cuellar said.
Huber said she encourages benefit recipients to reach out to religious institutions and charities or call 211, run through United Way, to locate food pantries.
At www.schsa.org, Stanislaus County maintains a list of available food resources updated as of July 2025.
Britni Lloyd, a manager for MoPride, helps operate its food pantry on Wednesdays and Fridays. “It’s no boundaries, so you don’t have to provide an ID or proof of income,” she said. “You can just come and get what you need.”
The pantry generally is for people who would not qualify for CalFresh either due to income or immigration status. But with more people needing food, there may be less access.
“Our current food bank system is not up to the standards that we hope it would be in our community, so now this is just going to cause a lot more issues,” Lloyd said.
To prepare for the influx of more food-insecure community members, Lloyd said she’s trying to spread awareness to increase donations, especially of fresh foods. “The most important thing is that people who can help, help at this time, with things that they would like to eat,” Lloyd said.
Have an EBT card balance? It won’t disappear
People won’t lose any remaining balances on their EBT cards, and customer service functions of CSA won’t change in the county. But no new funds will be added to EBT cards until the federal shutdown ends. After the shutdown, recipients should get their benefits retroactively.
Kim Brown and Karen Johnson run the Salida Food Bank operated by the Neighborhood Church.
On the first through third Tuesdays of every month, 75 to 80 families select food and fill up a bag from what’s available at the food bank, which gets restocked Tuesday afternoons.
Its supplies are a mixture of donations from The Salvation Army, donated eggs, frozen meals from Kaiser Permanente and deeply discounted food from Second Harvest of the Greater Valley.
“This is a humble area, so there’s a lot of people that are needy that reach us by foot,” Johnson said.
She and Brown didn’t know about the potential increase in demand with the removal of EBT benefits this upcoming month, but they’ll adjust. “If we increase because people have needs, we’ll provide for as many people as we can for as long as we can. We’re just here to serve, regardless of what’s going on in the community,” Brown said.
Lilia Lomeli-Gil, co-founder of the Grayson United Community Foundation, became aware of the situation just days before the shutoff would take effect. The center receives food through The Salvation Army.
Over the past few months, the center has had fewer supplies coming in, for reasons not made clear to Lomeli-Gil. The center also provides bagged lunches for three days a week provided by the United Samaritan Foundation, but it accommodates only 30 people.
“We’re supposed to live in the richest country in the world and now we’re seeing all this madness and chaos,” Lomeli-Gil said. “Whoever is governing should always be thinking about its people. The need is great, where is the empathy?”
This story was originally published October 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM.
