SACRAMENTO – California is helping CalFresh families put more fresh, healthy food on the table with the relaunch of the temporary CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program. Through this pilot, people receiving CalFresh can now earn a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $60 per month, when purchasing fruits and vegetables with their CalFresh benefits at participating grocery stores and farmers markets.
“Access to fresh, healthy food is essential for families to thrive,” CDSS Director Jennifer Troia said. “Thank you to our many partners for helping make this pilot a reality.”
Participating retail locations can be found in Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Orange County, Imperial County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Mendocino County, the Bay Area, and the Central Coast. For the full list of participating retail locations by county, please visit the following webpage.
Incentive food benefits are placed onto a cardholder’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card after a qualifying purchase is made at a participating retailer. Incentive food benefits are treated as regular CalFresh benefits. For more information, please visit the following webpage.
Helping Families Afford Healthy Food
Previous versions of the pilot served more than 155,600 CalFresh households and provided more than $17.9 million in additional food benefits. An evaluation of the earlier pilots found positive outcomes for participating families and identified opportunities to make the program easier to use. Those lessons helped shape the current pilot, including technological improvements to the experience for EBT cardholders and participating retailers.
The pilot program was originally created through Assembly Bill 1811 (2018) and this iteration of the program is supported by $20 million from the recently enacted state budget. The pilot will remain in effect until funding is exhausted.
More About CalFresh
CalFresh is California’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program provides financial assistance for purchasing food to low-income California residents. Benefits are federally funded, and the program is administered by California counties.
For information on how to apply, visit GetCalFresh.org or BenefitsCal.com. For data on CalFresh enrollment, access the Department’s CalFresh data dashboard.
EBT Cardholders can download the free mobile application ebtEDGE to manage and protect their benefits. For more information on ebtEDGE, visit the Department’s ebtEDGE webpage.