Food Assistance

COVID-19

Cal Fresh | (SNAP)

California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides a debit card for use at grocery stores, farmers markets, and some online stores and restaurants.

Apply online in 10 minutes to get up to $194 a month per household member on an EBT card. Your county will call you for an eligibility interview within a week. If you’re approved, you’ll receive an EBT card with money for groceries within 30 days.

You can qualify for 3 day Expedited Service if: your household makes less than $150 in monthly income and has less than $100 on hand right now; or your household’s combined monthly income and money on hand are less than your household’s combined monthly rent and utilities; or you are a migrant or seasonal farm worker and have less than $100 on hand right now.

In recent months, California has provided an Emergency Allotment to increase to the maximum allotment for their household size to all recipients. These benefits are decided on a month-to-month basis, with August the most recent approved month.

California WIC Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

APPLY:

  • Text: APPLY to 91997
  • Call: WIC at 888-942-2229
  • Visit: phfewic.org/apply

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a free food and nutrition education program for pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children under age five who have a low income (up to 185% of the federal poverty level) and are at nutritional risk.

Many WIC offices are not providing face-to-face services and instead are providing remote services to families through outreach by phone, text and email. People who have been economically affected by the COVID-19 crisis and are pregnant, postpartum or have a child under five years old can apply for WIC services.

As of January 27, 2021, WIC has temporarily expanded food choices.

As of April 28, 2020 you can use your EBT card to make purchases online. Individuals and families can purchase groceries online using their EBT card at Amazon and Walmart. If you receive CalWORKs, you may also be able to use your cash benefits to make purchases online at Wal-Mart.

211 LA Food Finder
LA County’s mapping tool for locating food resources

LA County created a mapping tool that makes locating food resources near you easy. Add your location and filter by type of resource, then click to see detailed information about the resource and how to access it. 211 Food finder provides information on:

  • Food Benefit Programs like CalFresh and WIC
  • Groceries/Food Pantries. People looking for free or low cost groceries or food boxes can search this category to find food distribution sites near them. 
  • Meals. People looking for prepared food or who are unable to prepare their own food can search the Meals category to find food resources. Due to COVID-19, services that offered group meal settings have transitioned to delivery or pick-up services.
  • Senior Food Needs. Older adults with food needs have options to sign up for various meal and food support programs. Age, income, and other requirements may vary. 
  • Child/Youth Nutrition. This includes summer food programs listed for school age children.
  • Temporary COVID-19 Food Programs. Several temporary programs were launched to provide people with food assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these programs closed during the summer months, although some may be extended.

Pandemic EBT (P-EBT)

Qualified families around the state are now receiving Pandemic EBT 2.0 cards, which can be used like CalFresh to buy food at grocery stores, farmers markets, and online at Amazon or other retailers.  These benefits, which are automatically sent to eligible families, are intended to make up for free or reduced-price meals usually served at child care facilities or schools that children may have missed because of the pandemic.  P-EBT 2.0 expanded eligibility to young children under age 6 receiving CalFresh as well as school children eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Meals for Students

In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established a waiver to allow the National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option (SSO) to operate when schools are open during the regular school year, through June 2022. This gives children access to nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches each day.

USDA also runs the Summer Food Service Program, which provides free meals to children and youths in low-income areas throughout the summer. For more information about how this program works and what you can do to participate in it, please click here (English) or here (Spanish).

LA County Library’s annual Lunch at the Library program provides grab-and-go meals to young people aged 18 and under during the summer months. This year, lunch and breakfast will be available daily for no-contact pickup on a first come, first serve basis from June 14 – August 6 (except July 5). More information is available here.

To receive the latest updates regarding school nutrition services, please check your school district’s website.

Los Angeles Unified School District Food Services Division

The Alliance for Children’s Rights protects the rights of impoverished, abused and neglected children and youth.

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