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Cal Fresh Awareness Month helps address ‘food insecurity’

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The Board of Supervisors has proclaimed May as “CalFresh Awareness Month” in Los Angeles County.

Now, more than ever, the County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) is escalating its effort to reach the nearly 600,000 people in the county who are potentially eligible and in need of CalFresh benefits to supplement their grocery budgets.

The latest Department of Public Health (DPH) study on food insecurity confirms that the CalFresh Program serves as a significant resource in preventing food insecurity, helping low-income families and individuals increase their food purchasing power and raise their levels of nutrition.

To achieve this task, DPSS has launched the “Let’s eat, L.A.!” and #ChooseCalFresh social media campaign, increased community outreach efforts, and engaged stakeholders, community-based service providers and local municipalities to help get the word out about CalFresh benefits.

Addressing the connection between food insecurity and chronic disease, DPSS will host the campaign’s kick-off event Thursday at Hubert H. Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center, where medical professionals will screen for signs of malnutrition, obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and other health related conditions due to poor diet. Patients will be referred to appropriate resources, such as CalFresh, WIC, and classes that focus on food resource management.

Over the next 30 days, DPSS Outreach Team will conduct hundreds of CalFresh enrollment events throughout the county, in supermarkets, community centers, schools, clinics and other locations.

DPSS invites the public to support its effort by downloading the CalFresh Outreach Toolkit, joining our #ChooseCalFresh social media campaign, following and sharing its content on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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