New Same-Day CalFresh Workshop Reaches Clients in East Village

In February, the Feeding San Diego CalFresh team held two same-day workshops with the County of San Diego at God’s Extended Hand, one of FSD’s partners.

CalFresh helps low income families purchase healthy groceries each month. FSD and the County of San Diego’s Health Coverage Access team have worked together since 2015 to provide same-day services at sites throughout the county. This service allows a client to apply for CalFresh at the same time as they are receiving food, complete the intake interview on the spot and be approved that day to receive benefits.

The most recent addition to this great partnership is God’s Extended Hand, a soup kitchen and homeless shelter in East Village that serves a large homeless population including families with children. For many of these families, reaching a county office to apply for assistance can be incredibly difficult as well as transporting their possession and providing identification documents.

In November, the team was able to complete 19 CalFresh applications and interviews on site between two workshops held at God’s Extended Hand. For many of their homeless clients these barriers to access benefits are easily resolved with county eligibility workers on site that day. Nigel, one of the clients at God’s Extended Hand, shared his story.

A construction builder in the San Diego area for the last 12 years, Nigel was doing well until Nigel fell backwards down the stairs of his home and broke his heel. He is no longer able work and said, “I come to the realization that I need to find a new trade.” The beginning of his journey to rebuild his life was accepting help from our partners at God’s Extended Hand and signing up with our Cal-fresh team and the county for assistance.