Health professionals, education leaders, and anti-hunger advocates warned state lawmakers in a legislative panel last week Wednesday that persistent nutrition insecurity and massive federal aid cuts threaten public health and economic stability in California.
Chaired by Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson alongside State Sen. Steve Padilla, the hearing at the San Diego County Operations Center examined how systemic food access directly dictates cardiovascular health outcomes, academic performance, and community stability.
Dr. Alexandra Kharazi, a San Diego cardiothoracic surgeon, testified that limited access to fresh, unprocessed foods accelerates cardiovascular disease, the nation’s leading cause of death. Dr. Kharazi explained that diet-sensitive conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes drive patients to end-stage open-heart bypass operations, particularly in communities like San Diego’s South Bay, where she operates.
“There’s more of a disparity of the food that people are able to have access to,” Dr. Kharazi said. “We now have research that even microplastics in processed foods is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”
She urged policymakers to broaden access to fresh produce, noting that processed foods and microplastics worsen arterial damage. Dr. Kharazi also flagged systemic medical emergency biases that frequently misdiagnose heart disease symptoms in women as menopausal transition.
California received $12 billion in SNAP benefits in 2024, and about 400,000 San Diegans were benefitting from CalFresh, the state’s name for the federal food program. The county and the state stand to lose funding under the 2025 tax and spending law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Statewide, 24% of California adults and 33% of households with children experienced food insecurity in 2025, according to Jared Call, policy and advocacy director for the California Association of Food Banks, which serves 6 million people annually. Call said 40 percent of Californians face a “basic needs gap,” where earnings fall short of housing, healthcare, and grocery costs.
“HR1 [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act] is the largest cut to SNAP in the program’s history,” Call said. “Over the next year, we’re anticipating over half a million people to lose access to CalFresh.”
Already, 300,000 Californians, including 130,000 children, have dropped off CalFresh over eight months due to immigration fears and administrative confusion, Call said. He urged the state to increase baseline CalFood (the state-run initiative that provides funding directly to local food banks) emergency funding to $60 million to “reduce volatility, allow food banks to plan ahead and get more food.”
One in four San Diego County residents experiences nutrition insecurity, testified Alondra Alvarado, president and CEO of the San Diego Hunger Coalition. While food assistance programs supply 25.7 million meals monthly, a regional deficit of 5.5 million meals remains unmet each month, with disparities highest among Black (36 percent) and Latino (35 percent) residents.
“These gaps aren’t about individual or cultural choices,” Alvarado said. “It’s a reflection of equity issues across our region. Who has had access to stable income, affordable housing, and well-resourced neighborhoods, and who hasn’t.”
Dr. Alberto Banuelos, interim director of San Diego County Self-Sufficiency Services, said that HR1 work requirements put 93,500 local CalFresh recipients at risk, with almost half of the recipients expected to lose coverage outright alongside 309,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
In response, “the county in August launched the food distribution program,” Dr. Banuelos said. “The year-long food distribution program started with six locations across the region most likely to be hit hardest by federal changes.”
State education leaders celebrated the fifth anniversary of California’s School Meals for All, which guarantees free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. With over 62% of the state’s 5.7 million public school students living near or below federal poverty lines, the program served over 868 million meals during the 2025–26 academic year.
“We are seeing that our meal programs are very stable, and I think that’s another testimony to the need for food and nutrition security in our state,” said Kim Frinzell, director of Nutrition Services at the California Dept. of Education.
