Reducing Food Insecurity on College Campuses
Many California community college students qualify for CalFresh, but aren’t aware of the program or how to apply. From October 26 to 30, colleges statewide are participating in CalFresh Outreach Week to bring awareness directly to campuses. This bi-annual event, led by the Center for Healthy Communities, helps students reduce food insecurity and receive benefits that are available to them.
CalFresh Outreach Week helps reduce hunger and poverty and improve health outcomes by providing nutrition assistance to millions of low-income households through various vital services. Bringing the message in public spaces on campuses also helps break the stigma surrounding food insecurity for those who qualify.
FoundationCCC offers a variety of support around CalFresh outreach including access to outreach toolkits, digital outreach materials, assistance to help colleges connect with CalFresh application assistance in their area, training around CalFresh outreach, and sharing outreach best practices.
One of the most powerful CalFresh outreach tools is student peer-to-peer outreach. Through the California Community Colleges Student Ambassador Program, students are trained about CalFresh outreach to build awareness, increase access, and decrease stigma around this food assistance program. As part of the program’s continued partnership with the Foundation for California Community Colleges’ Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Student Achievement Program, we have expanded multilingual CalFresh outreach resources to increase accessibility and support students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
This initiative began with a former Student Ambassador who developed translated CalFresh materials at their Asian-serving institution to better support students whose primary language is not English. Recognizing the impact of these resources, and encouraged by positive feedback from Student Ambassadors, AANHPI students, and campus partners, we expanded this effort statewide to ensure more colleges have access to culturally responsive outreach materials.
Today, our CalFresh postcards are available in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Each postcard includes culturally relevant food illustrations representing the communities served, information about CalFresh eligibility for students, and a QR code connecting students directly to CalFresh Benefits to learn more and apply for services.
To see all the college activities on campuses search the hashtag #calfreshoutreachweek on social media platforms.
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