After the federal government eliminated key hunger surveys, Assemblymember Stefani moves to restore the data California needs to fight food insecurity.
SAN FRANCISCO — In response to federal actions that have eliminated critical hunger data nationwide, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani today announced legislation to restore and expand California’s ability to measure food insecurity, ensuring policymakers and service providers are no longer forced to operate in the dark.
The bill, announced in partnership with the San Francisco–Marin Food Bank would reinstate the food insecurity screener within the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) after the federal government withdrew funding for the survey’s food security questions. The proposal also expands the survey to better reflect the realities of California’s high cost of living.
“The federal government chose to stop counting hunger and hope no one would notice,” said Assemblymember Stefani. “But hunger doesn’t disappear when you stop measuring it — it just gets easier to ignore. This proposal is about California stepping up where Washington walked away, restoring the data communities need to understand who is struggling, target help, and confront food insecurity with honesty and urgency. I’m grateful to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank for partnering with us on this legislation and for their leadership in the fight against hunger.”
In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would discontinue the nation’s primary food insecurity dataset, often referred to as the USDA Hunger Survey. Then, in early January 2026, federal officials confirmed they would also eliminate funding for the food insecurity screener within CHIS — the largest continuous state-level health survey in the country, which surveys approximately 25,000 California households each year.
The loss of both of these food insecurity data sets represents a major blow to understanding hunger in California and across the nation. Without reliable, populationlevel data, policymakers cannot evaluate how economic shocks and severe benefit changes such as those in HR 1, which limit CalFresh/SNAP access, affect household food insecurity — nor can they ensure resources are reaching the communities that need them most.
“We cannot afford to leave valuable information on where hunger exists in the dark, especially when reliable methods for identifying food insecurity can help improve outcomes for our working families,” said Noriko Lim Tepper, Chief Strategic Partnership, Advocacy and Voice Officer at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. “Families earning nearly twice the 200% federal poverty level benchmark, which is about $64,000 for a family of four, are still struggling. If the FPL in the CHIS screener doubles, this ensure every Californian experiencing food insecurity is seen.”
The legislation would establish a two-year pilot to restore funding for the food insecurity portion of CHIS and expand eligibility for the screener from households earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level to those earning up to 400%. This change reflects the reality that many working families earning above traditional poverty thresholds still struggle to afford food amid rising housing and living costs, such as those in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The proposal would publish county-level food insecurity data, enabling targeted responses and positioning California as the first state to fill the federal data gap.
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