In addition to providing nutritious food through our countywide food distribution programs for people of all ages and circumstances, we know that food banking alone will not solve the entirety of hunger and poverty. Thanks to the support of a caring community, we are fortunate to be able to help our neighbors with food when we are needed. In addition to that, we engage in advocacy work, sharing the causes and impact of rural hunger in Humboldt County, in the hope that we can build a stronger safety net and society.

According to Feeding America, for every one meal that food banks provide, CalFresh/SNAP provides nine. According to USDA, SNAP alleviates poverty and reduces the depth and severity of poverty experienced by recipient households.

We are committed to protecting and strengthening a range of legislation, programs, and policies that help lift people out of poverty, so that all elders, children, families, and individuals can live with dignity and good health. We can not food bank our way out of the economic conditions that result in hardworking or retired households unable to afford food AND housing, or food AND utilities, or medications, or transportation, or just to keep up with the rising price of food at all.

We keep as much of an eye on policy and the root causes of poverty as we do on our daily commitment to making sure our local community members, who come from every walk of life you can imagine, have access to food and do not go hungry.

Food for People publishes The Humboldt County Hunger Action E-News for Humboldt County partners interested in local, statewide and national CalFresh and nutrition current events. Outreach staff consolidate information on the successes, challenges, upcoming legislation and advocacy opportunities impacting CalFresh, nutrition education, hunger and poverty. Sign up via the form at the bottom of this page.

USDA's December 2025 Household Food Security Report reveals that 47.9 million people lived in households experiencing food insecurity last year. These findings highlight a crisis that will likely deepen as the largest cuts to SNAP in history take effect.

* One in seven households (13.7%) in America struggled with hunger in 2024.

* 14.1 million children lived in households that experienced food insecurity in 2024, up from 13.8 million children reported in 2023.

* More single-parent households headed by women experienced food insecurity at 36.8%—nearly 2% higher than in 2023.

* Rates of food insecurity remained high for Black (24.4%) and Latinx (20.2%) households.

* Households in the Southern region of the U.S. continued to experience the highest rates of food insecurity at 15%.

* Food insecurity was significantly higher in urban areas (16%) and rural areas (15.9%) compared to suburban areas (11.9%).

For more than three decades, this report has been the gold standard for understanding the struggle that millions of families face putting food on the table. However, the federal administration has announced that this will be the final year of the Household Food Security Report. As a result, we will no longer have this annual benchmark that impacted the ability to track food insecurity in the U.S. and the impact of SNAP cuts included in the budget reconciliation law.

The report informs critical policy decisions that keep children fed through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs; afterschool, child care, and summer meals; SNAP; and WIC, all of which are critical to ensuring that millions of people, including children, working families, veterans, and seniors, get the nutrition they need.

Advocacy work is underway to try to protect this critical report.

The Alliance to Transform CalFresh contains a wealth of information about improving CalFresh participation in California, with resources and information on opportunities for advocating for improvements state-wide.

NourishCA has a great website if you're interested in legislative advocacy for fair access to nutritious, affordable food for all Californians. Their work focuses on policy advocacy, expertise, and research. Their CalFresh page will tell you everything you need to know about upcoming legislative advocacy priorities, recommendations for improving the applicant experience and links to their reports and data.

California Association of Food Banks (CAFB)shares their State Policy Agenda regarding CalFresh, nutrition and anti-hunger policy and their Hunger Legislation Tracker.

Food Research and Action Center has a ton of advocacy-oriented information about poverty-related hunger in the United States, including advocacy and policy strategies on the Farm Bill, school meals, and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--or what CalFresh is known as at the federal level), including data, resources and publications.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a leading resource for data on SNAP and how legislative actions affect the program's participants and potential participants. Learn about some of the policy basics and introductory statistics, such as the percentage of SNAP participants that are in families with children, and how many SNAP participants are in households with seniors or people with disabilities, and go further with their many interesting analyses and reports.

In our conversations with legislators, it helps when we can support data, facts, and impacts with personal stories from community members in our district. How has a Food for People program impacted your life? How has a policy or regulation (for example, related to CalFresh, foods provided to the food bank for distribution to the community, etc.) impacted your ability to put enough food on the table for your household? Click on the “Share Your Story” button below to get started.