Foodbank of Santa Barbara County Hit by Major Cuts

For the past 17 years, Erik Talkin has been running the show for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, providing a degree of high-profile leadership the organization has rarely enjoyed. In that time, Talkin and his organization have weathered a major economic recession, a deadly debris flow that killed 23 people, serious floods, prolonged droughts, and the lingering agonies of the COVID pandemic. Now, Talkin, the Foodbank, and the 118,000 people who rely on the Foodbank to get them through are looking at something utterly new and different. 

Thanks to the most recent stopgap budget resolution hammered out by the Republican-controlled Congress last week to avoid a March 14 government shutdown, the Foodbank finds itself forced to navigate $1.23 million in federal cuts to its food supply programs. That’s roughly 10 percent of the Foodbank’s total budget.

According to Talkin, the largest cut — $800,000 — targets a relatively recent program in which the Foodbank has contracted with 20 small local farmers to provide those in need with fresh, locally grown produce like broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes. Another $400,000 in emergency box meals — a program launched by the Biden administration — has been targeted as well, plus $30,000 in food grants. 

During challenges in the past, Talkin said, the Foodbank always relied on the federal government to provide a much-needed backstop. This is the first time it’s been the federal government that triggered the funding crisis in the first place. 

“In the past, we’ve had to deal with all kinds of natural disasters; this is a man-made disaster. And it’s the first time we’ve found ourselves challenged by a disaster of our own making,” he said. “We’re trying to keep this nonpolitical. We’re not looking to blame anyone, but our food is disappearing. We have to get the alarm out now.”

Talkin said he’s hoping to organize a local drive to make up half the $800,000 lost by the local produce program. But those efforts are still in the embryonic phase.

Congress only acted late last week; the continuing funding resolution was passed with massive cuts outlined only in the most general of terms but with precious little specificity as to how they might be achieved. Those details will become clearer in the months ahead, he said. 

For example, the Agriculture Department has proposed $320 billion nationwide to the food stamp program better known as SNAP in California. It’s not clear yet how that program will translate locally; many details have yet to be hammered out. But according to County Social Services administrator Maria Gardner, who has administered the program for the past 13 years, there are currently 56,000 people living in 34,000 households enrolled. Maximum benefits for this program translate to $6.20 a day. If the cuts were rolled back to pre-2021 levels, Gardner said that would bring the maximum down to $4.60 a day. 

It remains unclear, she added, what kind of eligibility requirements might be imposed. Would recipients have to work a minimum number of hours a week to remain eligible for benefits? How frequently would they have to re-enroll and re-qualify? Such changes would have the effect of discouraging income-eligible individuals from even applying. Currently, Gardner said, there are 23,000 people who meet the income requirements to qualify but who, for any number of reasons, have not. 

The punchline of all this, said Talkin, looks exceptionally grim. “As our supplies are going down, the demand will be going up because of these cuts to SNAP funding,” he said. “But our mission remains the same — to get food to people who need it.” 

Currently, the Foodbank serves 118,000 people a month. That’s 75 percent of what the demand was during COVID. But it’s 50 percent more than what it was before COVID.