BACKGROUND:

The food challenges that San Diego families are facing are evidenced by recent reports from the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) citing a considerable spike in applications for food assistance at our Family Resource Centers. Acknowledging the County’s investment over the past few years to improve access to programs, such as food stamps, through business process re-engineering and better collaboration with community stakeholders, we hope that today’s recommendations will further build on these successes.

Recently, the HHSA facilitated a comprehensive re-engineering of the eligibility operations of self-sufficiency programs. By incorporating efficiencies in the eligibility process, such as document imaging and a customer contact center, it is expected that the number of visits that clients have to make to our Family Resources Centers will be reduced.  All of this has been achieved while placing a high priority on maintaining and improving program integrity. Over the past decade, our Board has implemented several practices that have served as fraud protection, such as face-to-face interviews, but are now outdated due to the new sophisticated California Welfare Information Network, commonly referred to as CalWIN.  This computer database is an automated eligibility system used by frontline county staff to determine eligibility for a range of programs and to manage caseloads. 

Now that the HHSA has begun implementing improvements to the operational side, we are asking the Board to consider policy changes that will further assist the HHSA in processing the tidal wave of applicants that have resulted from the recent economic downturn.  As the number of families needing assistance increases, so do wait times and case loads.  One such policy that should be examined is possibly changing the re-determination period from a quarterly to a biannual basis.  By making this change, the work load of eligibility workers would be lightened and therefore could result in cost savings for the County.

Often the price of healthy foods is higher than that of high fat, processed foods.  In an effort to address this barrier and stimulate the local economy, we are asking for your support to research and monitor potential funding and program opportunities in the Federal Farm Bill that would establish a program for food stamp recipients to purchase fresh produce, with an emphasis on produce that is locally grown, at farmers’ markets, and provide information on the County’s possible role in these efforts. This effort would be a win-win for the region; bringing in federal dollars to our local farmers while providing our families with access to healthy foods.

We urge your support of our recommendations to both conduct a review of policies that are time consuming, as well as research the potential to utilize federal dollars to establish an incentive program that will support local farmers and increase access to healthy foods for food stamp recipients.

Linkage to the County of San Diego Strategic Plan

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Respectfully submitted,

RON ROBERTS                                                                                BILL HORN                                                                     

Supervisor, Fourth District                                               Supervisor, Fifth District