Nutrition Action Alert
November 29, 2017
In This Issue
Senate GOP Tax Bill Vote Likely This Week 
Tell Your Senators TODAY to Vote NO on a Bad Deal for CA 

This week, the Senate is expected to hold a floor vote on its version of the GOP Tax Bill. The bill, like the House GOP version passed two weeks ago, p rioritizes tax cuts for  the  wealthiest households and profitable corporations over low- and moderate-income households. It also includes numerous flawed proposals that would hurt working families and those struggling to make ends meet, including:
  • Dramatically increasing the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, which would undoubtedly set up future calls for budget cuts to programs and services that help millions of Californians, including CalFresh and Medi-Cal;
  • Punishing Californians by eliminating the state and local tax deduction, which would increase the tax burden for many middle-income households and  make it harder for the state to adequately fund K-12 education, higher education, public safety, and programs that help low-income families.
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CALL YOUR SENATOR TODAY!
TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THE GOP TAX BILL

Call the Capitol switchboard today at (202) 224-3121 or click   here to find your Senator's contact information.   Tell your Senator to Vote NO on the Senate tax bill, which adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit, benefits the wealthiest Americans at the expense of working families, and is a bad deal for California. 

Even thought this week's vote is in the Senate, it is still important to call your Representative as well to tell them to oppose any future bill with the same fundamental structure that would hurt low- and moderate- income families and set up future cuts to programs including Medi-Cal and CalFresh. 
Call (202) 224-3121 or click here to find your Representative.
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Learn more by visiting  CFPA's Federal Advocacy page.

Contact: Jared Call at 213.482.8200 ext 201
Free School Meals for Students Affected by NorCal Fires

Students in school districts who received  Disaster-CalFresh (D-CalFresh) as a result of the Northern California wildfires can be directly certified for free school meals.  These students, who are facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances, would greatly benefit from seamless, paperless access to free school meals now and for the remainder of school year 2017-18.

Increasing the number of students directly certified for free school meals is important for the district too! Direct certification is used to determine eligibility for Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and is also important for maximizing state education funding through LCFF.

WHAT SCHOOL DISTRICTS NEED TO DO:

D-CalFresh recipients are already included in the state Direct Certification match, which can be downloaded from CALPADS. Make sure to pull the extract report for the entire year (back to July 1) rather than pulling the report for only December. County Welfare Department can also conduct a local direct certification match and share this information with school districts.

ACT IMMEDIATELY!

It's a best practice to conduct Direct Certification on a monthly basis. It's important for the affected students that a match is conducted as soon as possible.

Learn more about CFPA's  school meal enrollment advocacy.

New Survey Results: Medicaid Direct Certification Helps Schools Serve Universal Free Meals

A new CFPA-administered survey shows Direct Certification with Medicaid helps make it possible for schools to provide free meals to all students using the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The survey sheds light on the experiences of 14 California districts with a process called Direct Certification with Medicaid (DC-M). DC-M expands districts' ability to automatically enroll eligible students into the school meal program. The survey asked about district experiences with training, technical assistance, technology updates as well as opportunities and challenges associated with participating in the DC-M Demonstration Project.

View the full survey results.  PDF


To learn more about plans to implement DC-M statewide and increase CEP participation, visit  CFPA's SB 138 page.

Contact:  Elyse Homel Vitale  at 510.433.1122 ext 206
CFPA in the News...

The Sacramento Bee recently featured an op-ed,  California's Housing Crisis is Worsening Hunger and Health, penned by CFPA Executive Director George Manalo-LeClair and UCSF professor Hilary Seligman. The piece reveals how l ow-income families working to put healthy food on the table face increasing burdens in making ends meet, largely due to the state's high housing costs. CalFresh is one way to help alleviate that burden by providing additional resources for household budgets.

"The upcoming farm bill before Congress is a huge opportunity to invest in CalFresh. California's congressional delegation needs to recognize that CalFresh is a powerful tool not only for affording healthy food, but also for freeing up money for rent and reducing health care costs."

Read the op-ed. PDF

Contact: Jared Call at 213.482.8200 ext 201
Save the Date! CalFresh Forum March 14, 2018

Event details and registration info coming soon. Sign up to receive updates here.

Contact: Jared Call at 213.482.8200 ext 201
Main Office | 1970 Broadway, Suite 760 | Oakland, CA 94612 | 510.433.1122
Los Angeles | 205 S. Broadway, Suite 402 | Los Angeles, CA 90012 | 213.482.8200