Berkeleyside: Alameda County will invest $10M in food assistance programs

As the federal shutdown drags on, Alameda County officials are trying to figure out how to keep residents from going hungry.

Last week, the Board of Supervisors agreed to give roughly $10 million to local programs that feed residents. The bulk of the funding — $8.3 million — will go to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and $1.7 million will be spent on meals for senior residents. The Board will reconvene on Oct. 28 to ratify the decision.

Social service organizations warned the board that emergency funding is needed because the shutdown of the federal government, which began Oct. 1, has dried the flow of dollars to California’s main food support program, CalFresh.

Because the federal government didn’t reopen by Oct. 23, CalFresh benefits will likely be delayed in November for millions of Californians, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The state will issue additional guidance if the federal shutdown continues beyond November 2025, according to Newsom’s office. The governor also recently announced that he’s deploying the National Guard to support food banks. 

Even before the shutdown, CalFresh was impacted by H.R. 1, referred to by President Donald Trump as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which Trump signed into law in July. According to county officials, H.R.1 will result in an estimated $70 million annual cut to CalFresh money for Alameda County residents. In a presentation shared with the board on Tuesday, staff said 179,000 county residents received CalFresh benefits as of March 2025.  

In Alameda County, one in four residents is experiencing food insecurity, according to the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

Numerous speakers at last week’s supervisor’s meeting laid out the dire conditions facing thousands of residents in the East Bay who are already struggling to get by. Jessward Docena, who works for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, told the board that every week his organization serves workers whose paychecks don’t cover rent, seniors struggling to get by on fixed incomes, and parents skipping medicine to feed their families.

“This is not about charity, it’s about stability,” Docena said.

A need to better understand the county’s needs and resources

The supervisors were largely in agreement that it’s a good idea to support food programs in the county. But some were concerned about the prospect of trying to backfill programs indefinitely without clearer data about the county’s specific needs. President David Haubert pointed out that while the county’s spending on food assistance is far lower now than it was during the pandemic, expenditures are still higher than pre-2020.

“There’s no upper limit, there’s not going to be an upper limit,” Haubert said. “People need food.”  

Several board members said they want the county to conduct an assessment on the food needs of the county to better determine how much money should be spend on nutrition programs moving forward. Haubert also stressed that he’d like to prioritize serving populations that are at imminent risk of losing access to food.

Supervisor Nate Miley said that because the county’s needs are so great, “We need to figure out how best to appropriate limited resources to accomplish the greater good.”

Nikki Fortunato Bas said that while she doesn’t believe the county should fund just “anything,” she sees nutrition as a clear-cut priority.

“The need for food is a basic thing, and I want us to meet the urgency that people are feeling,” Bas said.   

Earlier this month, the board agreed to spend roughly $3.6 million to support expanding the county’s rapid response hotline for deportation legal defense and community education and outreach on immigration issues. The board also agreed to set aside money to pay for staff to serve a new Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to coordinate services.

East Bay leaders call for federal government shutdown to end

On Friday, the 24th day of the shutdown, Rep. Lateefah Simon and seven mayors from her congressional district gathered in Oakland to urge Republicans to work with Democrats and restore benefits for the East Bay’s most vulnerable residents.

The mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro, Emeryville, Albany, and Piedmont said the shutdown has created a financial strain on federal workers in their cities. Of the 760,000 constituents in California’s 12th Congressional District, 10,000 are federal workers, according to Simon.

The Republicans and Democrats have blamed one another for the stoppage.

“I want you to know that this is, in fact, a Republican shutdown,” said the congresswoman. “While the Democrats continue to hold the line for the people of this country, the Republicans continue to not answer the call.”

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said the government shutdown has left thousands of employees working at the federal building, the federal courthouse, and the Oakland International Airport without pay. She added that there have been growing concerns about how the shutdown might impact Oakland’s Head Start centers, which can serve up to 600 children in under-resourced communities, since the program relies on federal funds.

Lee and other mayors expressed worries about the looming cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, if the government shutdown continues. In Alameda County, one in four residents is experiencing food insecurity, and 175,000 people rely on SNAP benefits, according to the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

“We already know who’s going to be hurt the most by the shutdown — it’s the people who have already been suffering in our community,” said Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii. “We need to step up as a community to make sure that we’re continuing to serve people and their basic needs.”

“As people are unable to buy food, they might not be able to make rent, because they have to start making painful choices,” said David Mourra, mayor of Emeryville.

Each of the mayors at the press conference said they were coordinating closely with the county to ensure local food banks are fully stocked and that food is distributed to those most in need.

Local leaders also shared their concerns about potential increases in health care costs. Simon warned that President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” will take health care away from an estimated 15 million to 17 million Americans — including 30,000 in Simon’s district — over the next decade. The bill extended tax cuts, primarily benefitting the wealthy, and to pay for these, it eliminated and cut health care spending.

Democrats have refused to shore up votes that would reopen the government unless Republicans take action to prevent a spike in health insurance premiums and cuts to Medicaid.

Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, mayor of Alameda, said she worried about how this would impact the region’s already beleaguered health care system.

“As people start to lose their healthcare subsidies, or those subsidies become unaffordable, they will turn to hospital emergency rooms as their primary care providers, further burdening that system,” she said.

San Leandro Mayor Juan González implored House Speaker Mike Johnson and other House Republicans to negotiate with Democrats in good faith, describing the government shutdown as “created chaos.”

“Compromise is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of leadership,” González said.