City Heights emergency food pantry helps to fill gap after CalFresh cuts

About 13,000 families in San Diego have lost or are at risk of losing CalFresh benefits due to changes the federal government implemented on April 1.

“My favorite part of getting the food is getting the vegetables,” Medina Husen said. “I love them so much, I look forward to it.”

Husen is one of the 13,000. She’s also among hundreds of San Diegans who look forward to the pantry every other week.

“It’s a huge help,” Husen said. “I’m pretty sure there are some residents who are older who I know, I’ve personally talked to, [who look] forward to every other Wednesday because they don’t have the resources and most recently their benefits have been minimized or even cut down.”

Husen said she’s grateful to have an emergency food pantry to turn to for support.

“You feel safe, you feel like you have somebody that actually provides food for you in case you fall behind,” Husen said.

Javier Gomez, chief advising officer for City Heights Community Development Corporation said the pantry known as Feeding City Heights launched last November during the government shutdown, when many families lost access to SNAP or EBT benefits.

Since then, Gomez said, the food pantry has served as a lifeline for many in the community.

“We have seen an uptick in calls, an uptick in folks reaching out for the program, and that’s only been about a week, a week and a half, and so we are anticipating that the longer this goes on, that we will see a higher need,” Gomez said.

Now with the recent changes, they’re doubling down on their efforts.

“At City Heights, we are one-third foreign-born population, our community is highly refugee, asylum seeker, immigrants,” Gomez said.

Husen said access to the food pantry helps her save about $200 per month on groceries, which she uses for gas to get to school.

“This is actually a big impact in a lot of people’s lives,” Husen said.

And because of the changes that have been implemented at the beginning of the month, lots of people have questions.

San Diego’s 211 service is available to help answer questions and help find food resources around the county. It also City

City Heights Community Development Corporation has a website here.