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Filling the Gap: CalFresh Eligibility Among University of California and California Community College Students

REPORT: Filling the Gap: CalFresh Eligibility Among University of California and California Community College Students  PDF

PRESS RELEASE: New Report Finds the Majority of California College Students Who Are Eligible for CalFresh Benefits Don’t Participate

WEBINAR RECORDING: Filling the Gap. In June 2024, the California Policy Lab presented these findings during a webinar where Senator Nancy Skinner provided an introduction and our partners also shared their perspectives on the research.

CalFresh is California’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also commonly known as Food Stamps. In recent years, California has prioritized enrolling more students into CalFresh (for example, by funding Basic Needs Centers that help students to enroll), but these efforts have been hampered by a lack of understanding about how many students are eligible, and of that group, how many enroll. College students face a unique set of eligibility rules that advocates suggest may deter students from applying or staying enrolled.

This report is the first of its kind to link college enrollment and financial aid application data and then compare it to CalFresh eligibility rules in order to create more precise estimates of how many students are likely eligible for CalFresh. Through this process, they also pinpointed the eligibility criteria and program rules that appear to have the biggest impact in determining eligibility.

Editor’s note: This report was updated in August 2024 with updated eligibility statistics that reflect results from a refined simulation of student eligibility for CalFresh. Using the improved simulation, we found that among California Community College students, 20% of students were eligible for CalFresh (an increase from our 16% estimate in the June version of this report), among UC undergraduates, 33% were eligible (an increase from 31% in our June report), and among UC graduate students, 7% were eligible (an increase from 6%). More detail is included at the end of the report.

Media: This report has been covered by Inside Higher Ed, the Sacramento Bee, EdSource, and Community College Daily, and TV stations including KCRA, KPBS, Kron4, KTXL, KSEE, KGPE, KTVU, and KSBW.

Key Findings

1. 20% of all California Community College students were likely eligible for CalFresh, compared to 33% of UC undergraduate students, and 7% of UC graduate students. The lower eligibility rates for community college students is likely due to more of these students living with their parents – which makes them less likely to qualify.

2. Among students who were eligible, 26% of community college students received CalFresh benefits in the Fall of 2019, as compared to 22% of UC undergraduate students, and 27% of UC graduate students.

3. The average take-up rate among all California Community College students is 26%, and the average take-up rate for undergraduate UC students is 22%. Among UCs, take-up is highest at UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, and across CCC regions, take-up is highest at campuses located in the Central Valley.

4. The report shows that housing status is a key component of student CalFresh eligibility, because eligibility is based on the total incomes of people living and preparing meals together. A greater share of UC undergraduate students are eligible for CalFresh because more CCC students live with their parents. Another contributing factor to the UC-CCC difference is the Cal Grant college scholarship. The version of the Cal Grant given to UC students qualifies many of them for CalFresh eligibility, but the version given to CCC students does not.

Additional background
To conduct this research, the California Policy Lab (CPL) partnered with the California Community College (CCC) Chancellor’s Office, the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), and the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to build the first-ever linked database of student-level administrative data on college enrollment, financial aid, and CalFresh participation.

Three previously published data points provide statistics about CalFresh participation among California college students during Academic Year 2019-20 and 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Suggested citation: Rothstein, J., Lacoe, J., Ayers, S., Palos Castellanos, K., Dizon-Ross, E., Doherty, A., Henderson, J., Hogg, J., Hoover, S., Perez, A., Weng, J. (2024). Filling the Gap: CalFresh Eligibility Among University of California and California Community College Students. California Policy Lab. https://capolicylab.org/filling-the-gap-calfresh-participation-among-university-of-california-and-california-community-college-students/



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