USDA has put out information on the role SNAP benefits play in reducing poverty.

USDA put out a new report on the SNAP program.  In fiscal year 2011, on average, SNAP provided $134 per person to 44.7 million individuals in 21.1 million households each month.  Goes through the program operation, benefits, and integrity.

USDA has issued a Draft Guidance on serving Limited English Proficients applicants/recipients of USDA services.  Public Comment on the Guidance is due 5/7/2012.

FRAC issued a recent report finding that nearly 1 in 5 Americans cannot afford food.  This is an increase of 18% over the 2010 level, and the highest annual rate in the four years that FRAC has been tracking these data.

Read the Op Ed about Expanding Access it in the SacBee!

Thanks to the Lopez lawsuit, DSS is required to automatically restore folks after their administrative disqualification ends. To celebrate (and document) the rules, check out the new section! Restoring Benefits After an IPV.

The Food Research and Action Center has released new poll results that show widespread support for anti-hunger programs, with 77% opposing cuts to SNAP to balance the federal budget.

ACL 12-03 was issued, setting out the changes from SB 43, which adds additional, mandatory deferral criteria. By mandating additional bases for deferral, more CalFresh recipients will be able to avoid any problems with CFET sanctions (as sanctions are only for mandatory, and not volunteer, CFET folks). Unfortunately, all work registrants who are currently in sanction for noncompliance with E&T, who would otherwise deferred from E&T given the passage of SB 43, must continue in sanction until their minimum durational sanction ends or if they would qualify for an exemption to work registration. (The deferral is not an exemption that can end a sanction.)

The New York Times has summarized some interesting USDA SNAP demographic info: 1/3 are White; 96% are citizens (versus other lawful residents); adults without either children or a disability are only 9.7%, and only 12% of recipients also get cash assistance (8% TANF and 4% General Assistance).

On November 16, 2011 the U.S. District Court in Hawaii granted plaintiffs a preliminary injunction in Booth v. McManaman, a class action challenge to Hawaii’s failure to timely process SNAP applications. The Court found that plaintiffs have a strong likelihood of success on the merits, noting that the state’s timely processing had fallen from 83.7% in October 2009 to 69% in January 2011. Rejecting the state agency’s arguments that injunctive relief should not be granted because the state is taking corrective action, the Court said that a “wait and see” approach is not appropriate since the agency is only in the beginning stages of implementing its new business process changes and the effectiveness of such an effort on program administration cannot be determined.