ONLY 12% OF CALIFORNIA'S POOREST ADULTS RECEIVE FOOD STAMPS, ONE MILLION LACK ADEQUATE FOOD

A new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research examines participation in the Food Stamp Program among California’s low-income non-elderly adults. The new estimates of participants and potentially eligible non-participants uses data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS 2001).

The fact sheet was prepared by Charles A. DiSogra, Wei Yen, Anthony Ramirez, and Jennifer Aguayo of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research with funding provided by the California Food Policy Advocates. The study estimates that approximately 4 million (3,978,000) California adults, ages 18-64, have household income less than 130% of the federal poverty level and thus are potentially eligible for food stamps.

	Only 12.3% (489,000) of the potentially eligible adults report receiving food stamps;
	Over 1 million of the eligible non-recipients report being food-insecure, including 325,000 who reported experiencing hunger and the remaining 756,000 at risk for hunger;
	Half of the eligible non-recipients and over 80% of the recipients have children.

This fact sheet also examines the differences between the non-recipients and recipients in citizen/immigration status, participation in TANF/CalWorks and Medi-Cal, and employment.

A copy of the fact sheet can be downloaded at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pubID=72

Please visit our Web site at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu for more information and to obtain copies of other Center publications.

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