The Impact of the Government Shutdown on CalFresh

A data point by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab shows how many low-income students in California Community Colleges and in the University of California system would lose access to CalFresh benefits if they are cut off in November due to the ongoing government shutdown.

According to the data point, which was published previously, 276,000 California Community College (CCC) students, 50,000 University of California (UC) undergraduate students, and 8,400 UC graduate students received CalFresh benefits in Academic Year 2022-23. The data point does not include students from the California State University, though future analyses by the Lab will include these students.

“CalFresh benefits help students pay for food while they’re in school, and about one in five UC undergraduate students receive CalFresh,” explains co-author Jesse Rothstein, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy, David P. Gardner Professor of Higher Education, and Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley and the faculty director of the California Policy Lab’s UC Berkeley site. “Students use these benefits to afford their groceries, so if they don’t receive the benefits next month, then they will face some painful decisions about where to pull from their already limited budgets.”

In Academic Year (AY) 2022-23, 14.4% of CCC students, 20.7% of UC undergraduate students, and 12.3% of UC graduate students participated in CalFresh at some point during the school year, according to the data point. All of these rates were up considerably from AY 2021-22.

UC participation has increased each year since AY 2010-11, with noticeable inflection points in AY 2016-17, coinciding with increased funding for the UC Basic Needs Initiative, and AY 2020-21, when COVID-era policies increased the number of college students who were eligible for CalFresh and increased the amount of benefits most recipients received.

CCC participation rates have been more consistent over the past 15 years, but participation increased more from AY 2021-22 to 2022-23 than any prior year.

This increase may in part be due to a new requirement that every California Community College campus have a Basic Needs Center operating on the campus. Basic Needs Centers help students to learn about and apply for CalFresh benefits. Funding for those centers was provided under AB 132, the postsecondary education trailer bill passed in 2021, which provided $100 million for the community college system to establish or expand these centers in 2022-23.

Key findings from CalFresh data point:

At California Community Colleges:

• CalFresh participation rates increased in every CCC region in AY 2022-23 relative to AY 2021-22. The Central Valley continued to have the highest participation rate (21.6%) and had the largest increase from the prior school year (+3.8 percentage points).
• Among CCC students, participation rates were highest for those aged 30 to 34 years old (19.4%). These students comprised 11% of all CCC CalFresh participants, despite being just 8% of CCC students.

At the University of California:

• CalFresh participation rates increased for both undergraduates and graduate students at every UC campus relative to 2021-22 levels.
• UC Santa Barbara and UC Merced continue to have the highest undergraduate participation rates, with over a quarter of students participating (29.5% and 25.2%, respectively), while UC San Francisco continues to have the highest graduate participation rates (34.9%, more than twice that of the next highest campus).
• Among UC undergraduates, participation rates increase with tenure, with seniors having the highest CalFresh participation rate (24.7%) and freshman having the lowest (15.1%).

For more information about CPL’s Student Supports project, please see this overview.

This research is conducted through the new California College Data and Policy Project (CCDPP). The Project is a joint initiative of the California Policy Lab and the Center for Studies in Higher Education. The CCDPP is generating new insights and research on what works to better support California students and their families as they transition through the education system.

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The California Policy Lab generates research insights for government impact. Through hands-on partnerships with government agencies, CPL performs rigorous research across issue silos and builds the data infrastructure necessary to improve programs and policies that millions of Californians rely on every day.