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Amid the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors approved on Nov. 4 a $100,000 emergency allocation to the Community Food Bank to support residents who lost CalFresh assistance on Nov. 1.
More than 7,000 residents—including about 3,000 children—have been affected by the halt of federal food aid. In response, the county declared a local emergency on Oct. 31.
Emergency Services Manager Kris Mangano told the board that the declaration was the first step toward qualifying for future reimbursement from the $80 million fund the state has set aside to help jurisdictions mitigate the gap in services.
Several other counties made similar declarations that day, Mangano told the board.
“This lets the state basically know that we have a vested interest in our community and that if any aid is offered, at any time, that we are interested in receiving it,” she said.
On Oct. 31, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to resume payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known in California as CalFresh. But Community Food Bank Executive Director Antonio Mendoza told the board that, despite the ruling, many families may still face delays in receiving benefits.
“It will be weeks or months potentially until those benefits are received,” Mendoza said. “So the crisis that our residents are facing in terms of food and security has not gone away.”
CalFresh benefits amount to about $1.3 million each month in San Benito County. The supervisors agreed that the county should use a portion of its reserves to fund the food bank. All that is spent, County Administrative Officer Esperanza Colio Warren told the board, is expected to be reimbursed by the state.
Both Mendoza and Colio Warren estimated that $396,000 would be enough to cover November’s needs. The board is set to formally approve those funds at its Nov. 6 meeting. But given the urgency and following a suggestion from Supervisor Mindy Sotelo, the board agreed to allocate $100,000 immediately from the county’s Health and Human Services Agency reserves to help the food bank continue operations this week.
“We need to do something today. I mean, these are real people’s lives,” she said. ”The burden is falling on the Community Food Bank right now, and if there’s something that we can do, I think we should take that action today, even if it is small.”
Troubling cartoon
During the Nov. 4 meeting, Supervisors Kollin Kosmicki and Ignacio Velazquez condemned a cartoon posted on the Facebook page Benito Beet Beat that depicted a person saying they “need to hurt a supervisor or his kids,” next to another one resembling Supervisor Dom Zanger.
Both supervisors deemed the cartoon a threat to themselves and their families, and called for an investigation.
County Counsel Gregory Priamos described the post as “criminal” and said the county would investigate.
“We will seek to identify who these individuals are, who are the responsible parties,” Priamos said. “And if necessary, we will pursue a civil restraining order against these individuals in order to protect public officials and their families.”
Benito Beet Beat first edited the cartoon, then deleted it and published an apology.
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