In his January 2024 budget, Governor Newsom proposed cutting $33.2 million from the three-year, $35 million California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP). What does that mean for the economy and for Californians who receive food assistance?
Such a reduction in funding threatens Market Match, a program that allows low-income Californians who use their CalFresh benefits to get additional savings when they buy California-grown fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets. "It's a three-way win," says Frank Tamborello of Hunger Action Los Angeles. "It's fighting hunger, promoting healthy eating and supporting California farmers."
Market Match is offered at 293 farmers' markets across California. For the first several years of the program, all the funding was federal. Since 2015, the state has matched the federal funds, making the program available in all but three counties.
The beneficiaries are California's small acreage farmers who come into Los Angeles from Riverside, San Diego, and northern LA County, Tamborello says. Reducing Market Match eliminates the dollars the state receives from the federal government and takes away one form of economic stimulus. He recommends signing the petition at Save Market Match and writing to state legislators.