After a tumultuous election season and transition to a new administration, here are the top three questions I am asked:

My answers are below.  I encourage you to read all of the answers but especially number #3.  As the role of the media to cover detailed policy discussions and impacts on individuals is weakened, your calls, emails and tweets in support of our work become especially important.  Your financial support is also critical, as we expect to have to move more quickly than traditional foundation support allows in order to respond to new policy proposals that would undermine our mission.   http://cfpa.net/donate

Best wishes for the New Year.  Please read our 2016 Annual Report to reflect back on what was accomplished in 2016 and what is left to do.  With your help in 2017, we can forge ahead in pursuit of our vision of a healthy and hunger free California - taking on whatever challenges that come our way. Perhaps more than ever, the time for us to lead the fight against hunger is now .

#1 How are you?

Thanks for asking! Staff at CFPA were all affected by the election as individuals in different ways (we are real people with families and diverse community connections outside of work). However, as an organization, we noticed an absence of substantive policy discussions on hunger, food policy and poverty. However, three things we hold dear - health, evidence, and inclusion came under attack, as health rollbacks were promoted, as data and evidence were dismissed, and racial and ethnic fissures were deepened.  So how are we?  Shaken. Challenged. But also ready for action.

#2 How will the change in President and the changes in Congress affect the work of CFPA?

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we've worked to tie healthcare and nutrition together by advancing strategies to connect health care enrollment to programs that provide resources for food.  If some of the rhetoric from the campaign turns into real reductions of health coverage and enrollment, then those links are undermined and we could see real reductions in access to food without those connections to health.  We must simultaneously accelerate our health-nutrition connection efforts while fighting hard to keep health care and nutrition supports in place.

We have seen the playbook to starve health and nutrition programs before.  We have seen how vulnerable people like unemployed single adults or immigrants are scapegoated and targeted.  We have seen proposals packaged as "efficiencies" or touting local control (eg. block grants) that are really concealed attempts to cut services and supports. Given the weakened role of the media and in the absence of transparency, it is imperative that groups like CFPA share stories of how Californians would be impacted by policy proposals.

Legislative leadership in California has thus far communicated that California will continue to be a leader in bringing healthcare to all Californians.  There is certainly more that they should be doing to increase access to healthy food for low-income Californians. However, if the state is forced to address a health care budget crisis caused by a repeal of Obamacare, attention and resources will understandably be driven in that direction.  We must fight to keep health care for all while continuing to ask California to lead the way in ending hunger.

• Your stories:  As we look for the California legislature to lead the fight against hunger, we need stories of successful efforts to improve improve health and reduce hunger.  And as we prepare for potential threats to nutrition and health programs at the federal level, we need stories highlighting the powerful benefits of these programs in people's lives. Stories can be sent to  [email protected].  

• Your calls, emails and Tweets:  We need your help in shining a light on policy proposals - and your action in support of proposals that advance food access and against those that undermine it.  Sign up for our action alerts to get information on how and when to act.  http://cfpa.net/subscribe

• Your financial support:  We are going to need to quickly act in the coming year - financial support helps us be nimble and responsive. Your shopping purchases, your car donations, and your direct contributions can all help us act quickly to ensure that low-income California have access to nutritious and affordable food. http://cfpa.net/donate

Please join us  in reminding our California Congressional Delegation of the deep and wide support for our national anti-hunger and nutrition programs.  Western Center on Law & Poverty, CA Coalition of Welfare Rights Organizations, the California Association of Food Banks, and CFPA have prepared a statewide letter voicing the need to protect the nutrition safety net. 

We urge you and your organization to sign on today.

Read the sign-on letter. PDF

Add your organization on by sending your name, organization and logo to [email protected] by  Tuesday, December 20 th . 

 

In today's San Jose Mercury News, CFPA Director of Legislation Tracey Patterson makes the case that amid such abundance, there is no excuse for hunger in California.  Read the op-ed to learn how we answer the question, "H ow can we break the cycle of poverty, hunger and poor health, which are cause and consequence of each other?" 

Read the full op-ed. PDF