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Perception and Barriers to CalFresh Utilization Among Asian Pacific Islander Communities in Southern California

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a domestic hunger safety net that provides money for low‐income individuals. The program serves to reduce the risk for food insecurity by increasing individuals' purchasing power for nutritious food, and simultaneously providing economic benefits to local communities. In California, SNAP is known as “CalFresh”. California is tied with Wyoming for having the lowest SNAP participation rate among all states. According to the California Budget and Policy Center, the share of Californians in poverty is higher than those receiving food assistance. California has a largest population of Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs), at about three times the national population, but CalFresh data suggest API ethnic groups constitute less than 7% of households utilizing CalFresh benefits. The California Health Interview Survey found extremely small percentages of various Asian ethnic groups actually receiving food stamps, even when they qualified. For example, only 4.5% of the qualifying Korean population reported utilizing CalFresh benefits. While Los Angeles County is home to some of the largest API communities, only a small percentage of the eligible residents are capitalizing on CalFresh benefits. This translates to missed opportunities for low‐income API residents to purchase healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. While the need to understand SNAP participation in low‐income immigrant communities has been noted in the public health literature, currently there is a paucity of research on API and their utilization of SNAP benefits. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of and barriers to CalFresh participation. We conducted focus groups with Tongan, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese community members and community‐based organization (CBOs) service providers around Los Angeles County. These four API sub‐groups were chosen because of their low participation rates among those who qualified. In addition to focus groups, surveys were also administered to CBO service providers to gain additional insight from those working directly with these API communities. While data collection is currently on‐going, preliminary results from focus groups suggest that pride and a deep sense of self‐sufficiency were key barriers to participation in the CalFresh program. Additionally, structural barriers including a lack of in‐language material and a long and complicated application process prevented many from participating in CalFresh. These preliminary findings suggest the need to program culturally specific interventions to mitigate these barriers in order to improve SNAP participation rates among low‐income immigrant API groups. Consequently, this work has the potential to improve CalFresh utilization in low‐income immigrant API communities, thus helping to reduce health disparities.