Dozens of seniors lined up outside the Rohnert Park Senior Center bright and early on the morning of May 13.
Each waited for a box filled with nonperishable foods like canned vegetables and meat, pasta, rice, beans and oats. Redwood Empire Food Bank volunteers placed the boxes into their carts, followed by a bounty of fresh produce, precooked meals and other snacks.
Many of the seniors are on low fixed incomes and depend on the once-a-month food pickup, with boxes paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its Commodity Supplemental Food Program, or CSFP. For some, the nonperishable items plus fresh food added by Redwood Empire Food Bank, get them through the month.
For others, it cuts their grocery costs significantly.
“Everything is getting so expensive, the food at the store, we can’t afford it,” said Rosy Bop, 76. “We have Social Security but it only goes that far. So you have to do something once a month for some free food.”
The need among food box recipients such as Bop is clear, and yet, in another round of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget cuts, the administration is seeking to slash $425 million in USDA spending by eliminating the federal supplemental food program, which was created by Congress in 1969 to address hunger in specific populations.
In its place, the administration has proposed an as-yet not fully formed program under President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again initiative that would source fresh food from American farmers to give directly to households, bypassing food banks and shelf-stable foods the administration has labeled “high in sodium and other harmful ingredients.”
Food bank officials have rejected some assertions tied to that move by the administration. They also are raising questions about the lack of information provided by the federal government so far on how the new program would work, potentially leaving critical food aid for low-income seniors in the lurch.
Cuts on top of cuts, more limits
The proposed cut is not the only one affecting local food assistance programs. Another popular one managed by nonprofits — meals delivered to seniors in need — also is at risk, with nearly all of its federal funding targeted for elimination.
The moves by the federal government come as many food banks already are grappling with funding losses and aid shifts that have affected critical food supplies for the needy.
In Sonoma County, just under 4,000 seniors rely on the CSFP food boxes, which they can pick up at various Redwood Empire Food Bank locations.
Across its entire five-county operating region, also including Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, that figure is 7,200 seniors.
Nationwide in 2024, almost 732,000 seniors signed up for the monthly donations.
A wrinkle in how those boxes are allotted has already forced the local food bank to pull back on its donations through the program.
In previous years, the five-county region was allotted a total 6,900 of the food boxes and the food bank was allowed to order excess boxes from counties across California that could not donate their entire supply. So, for the past few years, Redwood Empire Food Bank has given over 300 extra boxes to hungry seniors each month.
“The real reality has been for the last five years we have been allowed and, in fact, encouraged locally to exceed our caseload,” said Redwood Empire Food Bank President and CEO Allison Goodwin. “So because the state was not at 100% of caseload, any food bank that could overserve was (encouraged to) because you’re kind of helping the state if you get us closer to 100% served.”
But a limitation earlier this year for total donations across the state of California has since ceased, leaving little leftovers from other counties and an overall cut to the food bank’s allotment. Redwood Empire is now only allowed to serve 6,849 boxes a month across the region, leaving almost 400 seniors a month to go without the supplemental food.
Since that limitation, California food banks have been forced to do something they hadn’t before: turn seniors away.
Redwood Empire Food Bank created a first-come, first-served process, no longer sending out reminders for seniors when there are donations or disenrolling seniors in the plan who haven’t picked up a box in two or three months, Goodwin said. That advice came from the state Department of Social Services, which oversees the program’s administration in California.
“Now you’re leaving the most vulnerable groups of people and (us saying): ‘No, we’re not going to have enough for people who are trying to access the food,” Goodwin said. “It’s tricky.”
All while navigating the new constraints, the hammer swung again on May 2 as Trump’s proposed spending plan was made public.
The budget accuses the food box program of being “misused for DEI” — meaning the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts targeted by the Trump administration — and “logrolling” — a dated term for favor-trading among lawmakers — as well as providing unhealthy foods.
As they stand, the boxes contain long-lasting food items like shelf-stable powdered milk, rice, beans, canned proteins, canned fruits and peanut butter.
“The cut is hidden under the guise of ‘making America healthy again,’” Goodwin said. “(The government) could change the offerings or give more guidance. It’s being presented as if it’s a revamping to make the (program offerings) healthier which is something no one would argue against — health for seniors.”
‘Ready, fire, aim’: Unclear what comes next
The program is set to be replaced by a new model under the Make America Healthy Again initiative, spearheaded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The initiative aims to “tackle nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety” across the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the same budget proposal, the Trump administration requested a $500 million increase for the Make America Healthy Again initiative.
It aims to replace the current USDA food boxes with “MAHA boxes” and remove food banks as the “middlemen” who distribute the food to seniors, according to the blueprint from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
These updated boxes are set to be filled with “commodities sourced from domestic farmers and given directly to American households,” according to the May 2 proposal.
Food bank officials say the logistics of such a switch appear daunting from the get-go, and nothing they’ve seen so far from federal contacts or their state counterparts has convinced them it can be quickly pulled off.
“Food banks have always facilitated this program,” Goodwin said. “A direct box provided to people? I don’t understand how that would actually happen.”
Representatives with the California Department of Social Services, which oversees the program and provides administrative funds for food banks, said they haven’t received any guidance from the Trump administration to pass down to California providers under the existing program.
They referred questions to the federal government.
Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, referred back to the administration’s budget proposal when asked about the MAHA food box program. She did not respond to repeated requests for an interview on the rollout of the program’s replacement.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who represents much of Sonoma County and all of Napa County, said he and his staff have seen no information passed down from the federal government on how the replacement program will work.
That is on par with the wider set of proposed cuts floated by the administration, Thompson said. They show little to no consideration for how Californians — and all Americans — will be supported without such safety net programs, Thompson added.
“I think it’s safe to sum up everything that this administration is doing as ‘ready, fire, aim,’” he said. “I don’t think they’ve laid a single plan and they’re not looking for an orderly transition to whatever the new plan is, nor are they looking for a soft landing.”
Options for food, qualifications
“It’s hard to be old,” said 72 year-old Caryl Sherman, as she waited outside of the Rohnert Park Senior Center on May 13. She got there early and sat alongside other residents who bring their own folding chairs and wheeled carts to get the supplies back home.
To qualify for the program, seniors must be above the age of 60 and must make less than $23,475 a year — not including additional financial help like Social Security — placing them at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines.
“ (This program) works for me because I’m on limited income,” Sherman said. “I mean, that’s the obvious, right? … and the price of (groceries) — it’s a little out of hand.”
At the senior center, most just took what they needed. For the first time in months, there was bread on the donation table. The loaves, like the fresh produce, are supplied separately by Redwood Empire through their own funding.
The food bank also offers precooked food. On that Tuesday morning, they had mushroom prosciutto pizza, made with fresh ingredients left over from regular donation sites through the food bank’s On the Spot Nutrition program.
“If you lived in West Virginia, you’re not going to see 12 produce varieties — we try to supplement as much as we can,” Goodwin said. “That has nothing to do with USDA’s program. That’s what we invest in.”
While the Redwood Empire additions provide additional healthy foods, the USDA food boxes offer key staples that recipients said they wouldn’t be able to come by otherwise.
“I’d be pissed,” Sherman said, sharing how she’d feel about the program’s cancellation. “I’d probably have a sign, back and forth in front of Trump’s house … This troubles me. We don’t all have golden toilets.”
What’s next, budget approval
Thompson said he is monitoring the budget process to see how this cut and others sought by the administration shake out in budget wrangling happening now among lawmakers.
He called the fallout on safety net programs particularly “disruptive” for some of the nation’s most vulnerable residents.
“Whatever this president wants to do … (his administration), they haven’t been particularly kind to safety net programs,” Thompson said. “They don’t seem to be terribly concerned about food insecurity for children, vets, for elderly people, and I think we really need to watch it and do everything we can to turn the budget.”
The blueprint for discretionary spending included in the administration’s May 2 proposal is part of the annual budget process.
It is separate from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the legislation being advanced by Republicans in Congress to extend tax cuts, bolster funding for protection of the U.S.-Mexico border and set in motion controversial cuts, including changes to Medicaid.
House Republicans narrowly passed the bill May 18, moving the package to the Senate, where changes are expected.
The two chambers will need to iron out any differences in the two bills in a process called reconciliation before Trump has something to sign.
The annual budget will follow a similar approval process that will likely not conclude until September.
Until then, there are opportunities to save the program, and Thompson is working to make that happen.
“I’m going to be fighting for this — to retain this program and to fully fund it,” he said. “Talking to my constituents … people are afraid. Seniors are frightened and you can understand why.”
Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.
