Officials plan for federal food aid cuts to 43,000 Sonoma County residents

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About 43,000 Sonoma County residents are set to see critical food aid suspended Saturday by the Trump administration, which has moved to pause the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits, amid the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown.

So far, Sonoma County officials say they won’t be following the lead of Napa County, where on Monday the Board of Supervisors approved spending up to $1 million on emergency food assistance to backfill the federal void over the next two months.

Angela Struckmann, director for the Sonoma County Human Services Department, said instead the county is working with Redwood Empire Food Bank “to understand their financial and resource needs.”

As the North Coast’s largest nongovernmental food aid operation, Redwood Empire is best positioned “to get food out to the community quickly,” she said. It is as yet unclear what county support could look like, but Struckmann said she has another meeting scheduled with Redwood Empire this week.

County staff have been alerting people with CalFresh benefits, as the program is called in California, about the federal benefits suspension, directing them to the food bank and other nonprofit resources.

“I think if this were to continue months down the road, we’d have to look at other creative ways to support the community,” Struckmann said.

Redwood Empire CEO Allison Goodwin said her organization is focused on carrying out its mission, responding in a time of crisis, whether the county chips in or not.

Still, Goodwin said there’s a need for a greater concentration on food insecurity, “and if that resulted in contracts and funding, we would welcome that partnership.” She also identified a crucial component of mobilizing the community, getting information out about volunteering and donating.

The organization has already been grappling with federal cuts, including more than $700,000 in cancelled food shipments since March and fewer funds for its programming. Although it’s still unclear what the need is going to look like, the food bank is expanding capacity at distribution sites and working to secure emergency supplies through donor networkers.

In Sonoma County alone, there were more than 27,000 households or almost 43,000 people enrolled in CalFresh in September, receiving an average $300 in food aid each month. “It’s a huge supplement,” Struckmann said.

Just over a third of recipients — 34% — are under 18; a quarter are 60 and older. Across the state, 5.5 million people receive CalFresh benefits, and 1 in 8 rely on the aid nationwide, amounting to about 42 million people.

Human Services staff have been fielding calls and lobby visits with most questions about whether and when November benefits will be received after the shutdown ends and where people can find food. For now, all Struckmann knows for sure is that there’s a delay, although she said the normal expectation is that aid will be retroactively restored. She encouraged anyone considering applying for benefits to continue with their applications.

“The well has run dry,” a dark orange banner atop the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website reads, pinning the blame on Democratic senators, who have been holding out for extensions to health care tax credits to keep insurance premiums in check.

On Tuesday, the Senate failed to advance a government funding bill for a 13th time.

During the only longer government shutdown, which lasted 35 days during President Donald Trump’s previous term in 2018, food benefits didn’t lapse. “This is entirely different and arguably much worse,” Goodwin said.

On Tuesday, California joined about two dozen other states in suing the Trump administration to force Washington to tap emergency reserve money so that families would not see an interruption to their benefits, the New York Times reported.

Already, officials were bracing for massive cuts to social safety nets laid out in the a sprawling domestic policy package passed earlier this year, including less funding for SNAP and tighter restrictions on accessing the program.

Almost 13,000 Sonoma County residents on CalFresh will be subject to new work requirements, according to county data.

“We’ve been working to prepare for all these changes,” Struckmann said. “We thought we had more time and didn’t expect that the government would shut down prior. It certainly exacerbates everything that we know is coming.”

You can reach senior reporter Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @marisaendicott and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.