HomePublicationsEducationCalFresh Participation Among California’s College Students: A 2023-24 School Year Update

CalFresh Participation Among California’s College Students: A 2023-24 School Year Update

Education Safety Net
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CalFresh Data Point Press release
Photograph of a college student woman, sitting on a bench, eating a salad with her backpack next to her.

Executive Summary

Food insecurity is widespread among college students in the United States. CalFresh food benefits, known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, can help students in California pay for food, but may not reach all eligible students. This data point provides estimates of CalFresh participation rates among California community college (CCC), California State University (CSU), and University of California (UC) students in California. It updates numbers from our last data point, which focused on CalFresh enrollment during the 2022-23 school year for CCC and UC students. This is the first data point in this series to include CSU students. Figure 1 displays the share of college students who participated in CalFresh at some point in the academic year 2023-24 and preceding years. 

FIGURE 1:

This data point presents CalFresh participation rates, but it does not estimate what share of eligible students participate (or not) in CalFresh. Eligibility is based on multiple factors including income, household composition, school enrollment status, and financial aid status. A previous CPL report shows how many likely eligible college students are participating in CalFresh.

Key Findings

In Academic Year (AY) 2023-24, participation rose across all three public higher education segments. Among community college students, participation increased by 0.8 percentage points to 15.2%, with approximately 320,000 students receiving CalFresh, about 42,000 more than the prior year. At CSU, participation rose by 1.3 percentage points for undergraduates (to 16.4%), with roughly 73,000 undergraduates participating, about 5,600 more than the prior year. CSU graduate student participation rose by 0.6 percentage points to 10.8%, with approximately 8,100 participating, about 400 more than AY 2022-23. At UC, undergraduate participation increased by 0.7 percentage points to 21.4%, with approximately 52,000 students, about 2,000 more than the prior year. UC graduate student participation rose slightly (+0.1 percentage points) to 12.4%, with approximately 8,200 students. However, despite the growth in the participation rate, there were about 100 fewer students participating in CalFresh (than the year before) due to declining enrollment.

Participation rates continued to grow even after COVID-era federal policies expired, though at a slower pace than in prior years. AY 2023-24 is the first school year following the end of these policies, which had included emergency allotments that nearly doubled average monthly benefit amounts and expanded student eligibility.1

This continued growth in CalFresh participation among college students tracks growth in policy and advocacy efforts in California. Several major state-level laws aimed at increasing college student participation in CalFresh went into effect in 2022, and implementation of these laws may have continued to mature into AY 2023-24, contributing to the continued growth in CalFresh participation.2 Furthermore, networks of advocates, higher education administrators, and social service professionals have continued to advance the outreach and support students receive to help them enroll in CalFresh and reduce the prevalence of food insecurity. Rising costs of food may have also contributed to more students signing up for CalFresh. 

Patterns of participation by student group

Tables 1-5 present CalFresh participation rates during the 2023–24 academic year among community college students, CSU undergraduate students, CSU graduate students, UC undergraduate students, and UC graduate students, respectively. The College Student CalFresh Participation Dashboard  presents these data as interactive line graphs, and allows users to explore how participation rates have changed over time. Appendix Table A1 provides participation rates by community college campus.

Participation rates varied across higher education segments, regions, campuses, and student subgroups (see Appendix for subgroup definitions).

Key patterns include:

  • California community college regions — CalFresh participation rates continue to increase in every CCC region. The Central Valley had the highest participation rate (23.0%) and the largest increase from the prior school year (+1.4 percentage points). The Bay Area continued to have the lowest participation rate (10.4%). 
  • CSU campuses – CalFresh participation rates increased for the majority of CSU campuses from 2022-23 but decreased on six campuses. For both undergraduate and graduate students, CSU Chico, CSU Humboldt, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo have the highest CalFresh participation rates. CSU Chico had the highest participation rate for undergraduates (33.0%) and CSU Humboldt had the highest participation rate for graduate students (31.7%). Cal Poly San Luis Obispo saw the largest increases from the prior year by far for both undergraduate and graduate students (+12.8 and +7.4 percentage points, respectively).
  • UC campuses — While overall participation increased slightly, CalFresh participation rates declined slightly at UC Berkeley, UC Merced, and UC Riverside for undergraduates and at all UC campuses except for UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside for graduate students.
  • Student aid — Participation rates stayed fairly consistent for students who receive financial aid, including Pell Grants and Cal Grants. About 32.9% of CCC students, 42.9% of UC undergraduates, and 28.6% of CSU undergraduates who received a Pell or Cal Grant also received CalFresh.  
  • Racial and ethnic groups — Participation increased across nearly all reported racial and ethnic groups in all segments. Black/African American students had among the highest participation rates across segments. Groups with the largest increases (2 or more percentage points) include Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander community college students, White CSU undergraduates, and American Indian/Alaska Native UC undergraduates. UC participation rates are also high among Hispanic/Latino/Chicano students, though participation in this group declined slightly among UC graduate students.
  • Age groups and tenure — At the CCC campuses, participation increased fairly evenly for all age groups. The participation rate continued to be the highest for students 30-34 years old (20.4%); this group also had the largest increase (+1 percentage point). For CSU undergraduates, second- and third-year students had the highest participation rates (17.5% and 17.2%, respectively), and the latter had the largest increase (+2.5 percentage points). For UC undergraduates, third-year students had the highest participation rate with seniors a close second. The rate increased for students of all tenure except for the first-year students (-1.2 percentage points).

California Community College Students

TABLE 1:

California State University Students

TABLE 2:

TABLE 3:

University of California Students

TABLE 4:

TABLE 5:

The Student Supports linked database

To better measure student participation in CalFresh, the California Policy Lab (CPL) partners with the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University Chancellor’s Office (CSUCO), the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), and the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC). Through this partnership, CPL created a linked database of student-level administrative data on college enrollment, financial aid, and CalFresh participation that makes this analysis possible.

CPL matches encrypted data records from each agency without ever receiving Personally Identifiable Information (PII), allowing for accurate data linkage while guaranteeing the protection of private information.3

This data resource, known as the Student Supports database, is the first of its kind in California, and is enabling CPL and our research partners to:

  1. observe California college students as they begin, progress through, and complete their education;
  2. directly estimate student eligibility and take-up of safety-net benefits;
  3. pilot and evaluate strategies to increase take-up; and
  4. examine the relationship between receiving safety-net benefits and student success.

Our findings to date are available on the Student Supports webpage.

Note: We updated our crosswalk among the different datasets to more accurately link student information across sources. The results in the brief reflect the updated crosswalk, even for earlier years, and thus differ slightly from earlier data points (for AY 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22).

This research is conducted through the 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 generates new insights and research on what works to better support California students and their families as they transition through the education system.

Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, the California State University Chancellor’s Office, the University of California Office of the President, the California Department of Social Services, and the California Student Aid Commission for their partnership in making this research possible. The findings reported herein were performed with the permission of the California Department of Social Services. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and should not be considered as representing the policy of the collaborating department, agency, or any department or agency of the California government.

This project was made possible through support from the College Futures Foundation. The California Policy Lab also receives support from The James Irvine Foundation and the Woven Foundation and we are grateful for their generous support.

Suggested citation: Tan, C., Hogg, J., Lacoe, J., Rothstein, J. (2026). CalFresh Participation Among California’s College Students: A 2023-24 School Year Update. California Policy Lab, University of California. https://capolicylab.org/calfresh-participation-among-californias-college-students-a-2023-24-school-year-update/

Appendix

Variable definitions

  • Received CalFresh: Students are identified as participating in CalFresh if they received CalFresh benefits during a term (quarter or semester, depending on the school) in which they were also enrolled in college.
  • Filed a FAFSA: Students who matched to a submitted FAFSA record in the California Student Aid Commission dataset were identified as having filed a FAFSA. All other students in the population were identified as not having filed a FAFSA.
  • Any financial aid recipient: Among community college students, this group represents all students who received any type of community college financial aid, including aid awarded by the federal or state government, and aid awarded by the California Community Colleges. Among UC students, this group represents all students who received aid through any of the following: the Blue and Gold Opportunity plan, Cal Grants, Pell Grants, Federal SEOG grants, UC grants, other gift aid or financial assistance from UC, veterans’ specific assistance, work study, Chaffee grant, or either a federal or other type of loan.
  • First-generation student: For community college students, first-generation students are defined as those who reported having no parent or guardian who attended college or earned an Associate degree, in accordance with California Community Colleges’ technical definition. This data began being collected by CCCCO in 2017. For UC students, we define first-generation students as those who reported on the FAFSA that neither parent attended college. Approximately 76% of CSU undergraduates, 55% of CSU graduate students, 67% of UC undergraduates, and 31% of UC graduate students submitted a FAFSA. UC students who did not submit FAFSAs are not included in either the “first-generation” or the “not first-generation” subgroups. Given the different data sources used to define this subgroup, we recommend that readers avoid making comparisons regarding student counts or CalFresh participation rates across the higher education segments.
  • Enrollment types:
    • For community college students, first-time students are those who are enrolled for credit in higher education for the first time after high school. First-time transfer students are those enrolled in the reporting college and who transferred from another institution of higher education. Continuing students are those who are enrolled in the current session and were enrolled in the previous regular session. Returning students are those enrolled in the reporting college after an absence of one or more terms. Special admit students are those currently enrolled in K-12. Unknown are those students whose enrollment status is not known. These categories are all mutually exclusive.
    • Summer only students are defined as those who are enrolled only in the summer term for a given academic year. Fall, winter, and/or spring students are those who are enrolled in at least one non-summer term in a given academic year.
  • Race/ethnicity: For both community college and UC students, we rely on the racial and ethnic subgroups that are reported in each segment’s administrative data, which are based on student self-report.
  • Zero expected family contribution (EFC): The expected family contribution is a measure of how much the student and their family is expected to contribute to the cost of the student’s education, based on information reported on their FAFSA. Individuals with zero EFC are not expected to contribute financially to the cost of education. For UC students, this subgroup is defined based on students’ reported EFC on their FAFSA. This variable is included in administrative data from the UCs, who source it from CSAC.
  • Has disability: For both community college and UC students, this subgroup is based on an indicator for having a disability in college administrative data, and may not be inclusive of all students who identify as having a disability. Students with certain types of disability are not subject to the CalFresh “student rule” and therefore do not need to meet a student exemption to be eligible for CalFresh, so long as they meet the citizenship and income requirements.

TABLE A1:

ENDNOTES

  1. Federal law requires that college students (enrolled half-time or more) meet additional requirements, beyond the standard SNAP eligibility criteria. These requirements are called “exemptions” and include situations such as caring for a young child, participating in work study or TANF, and participating in a SNAP Employment & Training program. During the pandemic, Congress added two additional exemptions: having “Zero Expected Family Contribution” based on your FAFSA, and being eligible for work study (even if you did not participate).  ↩︎
  2. These laws included large allocations for basic needs centers on campus (AB 132), mandating more collaboration between campus basic needs staff and county eligibility workers (AB 1326), and streamlining the process by which an Employment & Training program could be classified as an exemption to the federal student rule (AB 396) ↩︎
  3. See Appendix C of our CalFresh Eligibility Report for more information on our linkage methodology. ↩︎

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