Despite being eligible, few college students participate in the state's CalFresh food program, according to a report released Tuesday by the University of California's California Policy Lab.
The report, “Filling the Gap: CalFresh Eligibility of University of California and California Community College Students,” is the first to link data sets that provide estimates of the number of California college students eligible for CalFresh, the state’s food benefit program. In addition to enrollment rate, this is the percentage of students who are eligible and participate in the program.
The report's authors found that CalFresh eligibility and enrollment in a student's subsequent program depended greatly on which institution of higher education they attended, age, housing situation and other factors. The schools they enrolled in were often tied to their level of outreach, informing them about food benefit programs and whether they received specific financial aid grants that could qualify them for CalFresh.
“Over the past few years, California has increasingly focused on potential support channels for college students. This is one of the pieces that can be glued together to put together a financial package to help students get to college,” said report co-author Jesse Rothstein about the CalFresh program.
CalFresh, once known as food stamps, was designed to provide Californians with money to buy groceries, and is an important support program for low-income students. College students are generally eligible for CalFresh if they meet at least one of the regular rules and more than a dozen exemptions that everyone, student or not, must meet. Understanding the long list of eligibility criteria specific to students has long been considered a significant barrier for students, according to the report.
“But I think it’s difficult for students to find their way around CalFresh because it’s run by a different institution that is not part of the education system,” said Rothstein, the Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy and Economics at UC Berkeley and a UC Berkeley faculty member. California Policy Lab's UC Berkeley site.
Data for the report was collected by UC's California Policy Institute from four agencies: the Office of the President of the California Community Colleges, the Office of the President of the University of California, the California Department of Human Services, and the California Student Aid Commission.
In collecting data from these four institutions, the authors developed a database linking college registration numbers, monthly CalFresh participation records, and annual Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA) details.
The data represents differences in eligibility and acceptance rates between students at California community colleges and UC campuses, as well as which students actually enroll to receive benefits if they qualify.
Data from fall 2019, the semester immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, provides one of the clearest examples. During that time, data showed significant differences between students who qualified for CalFresh and those who applied for food assistance, with larger differences based on whether the students were enrolled in a community college or UC.
They found that 19% of community college students, 31% of UC undergraduates, and 6% of UC graduate students were eligible for CalFresh. However, only 30% of eligible community college students, 22% of eligible UC undergraduates, and 29% of eligible UC graduate students actually registered to receive CalFresh benefits.
The authors suggest several reasons for the discrepancy.
First, UC students are less likely to live at home with their parents, which increases their chances of qualifying for CalFresh.
Second, community college students are less likely to qualify for CalFresh overall. This is because, according to the report's authors, “the version of Cal Grant available to UC students is suitable for many students who qualify for CalFresh, while the version available to CCC students is not.”
And finally, UC has increased outreach efforts to enroll more eligible students in basic aid programs like CalFresh. This may explain why admissions rates for UC undergraduates have increased significantly since 2017, while those for community college students have decreased, the authors wrote.
The authors note that although the errors are likely to be minimal, reports can only provide estimates of the data because several eligibility determinants may be captured inaccurately. “Our estimates are a good approximation of the proportion of students deemed eligible based on individual decisions. .”
A closer look at the fall 2019 data highlights the following important details:
- UC Santa Barbara on the Central Coast had the third-highest eligibility rate at 36% but the highest acceptance rate at 37%.
- Among community college regions across the state, the Central Valley had the highest eligibility rate at 23% and the highest admission rate at 38%, while the Bay Area had the lowest eligibility rate and the lowest admission rate at 12%. 22%
- Black and Latino students were more likely to be eligible than white or Asian students, regardless of which institution they attended.
- When actually enrolled in CalFresh, black and Latino students were more likely to attend UC, but Latino students were less likely to enroll in the program when attending a community college.
- At both institutions, students over 23 had higher progression rates than students under 23.
Some of these details are expected given the outreach history of a particular agency. For example, Santa Barbara County and UC Santa Barbara have long worked to streamline the process for students to determine CalFresh eligibility and apply for the program.
Other details, such as low occupancy rates in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, highlight the need for additional outreach in areas where housing costs and living costs are becoming increasingly higher. In fall 2019, only 4% of Los Angeles community college students were eligible and participated in CalFresh. In the Bay Area, that number was 3% during the same period.
Develop new data sets
The report includes data from millions of students who attended UC and community college campuses between the 2010-11 and 2021-22 academic years. Although the report's authors focused mostly on recent data, they included consistent prior-year data across the four institutions with data-sharing agreements, dating back to the 2010-11 school year.
The bulk of the project took about four years to complete, according to Rothstein, who noted that the project took “longer than most” of his career. The team first had to negotiate data-sharing agreements between each agency included in the report and then organize them to ensure accuracy.
“Carrying out this type of project is beyond the capabilities of any individual institution,” Rothstein said. “This work takes too long and requires too much interagency cooperation.”
Noticeably missing among the institutions that shared data was California State University, the largest four-year public university system in the United States.
CSU was “more reluctant” to share data, Rothstein said, and his team decided to proceed without that system information. He noted that his team plans to work on another version of the report that could include CSU data.
“Our hope is that by developing long-term relationships with institutions, we can build the trust necessary to undertake these kinds of projects,” Rothstein said. “We can also build expertise in the individual data sets that make this possible.”