CalFresh Cuts Push Fresno Food Groups to Fill the Gap

More than 237,000 people in Fresno County were receiving CalFresh benefits as of July. That number is about to drop.

Federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — CalFresh in California — went into effect this year as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed in July 2025. The California Budget and Policy Center estimates the cuts could cost the state between $2.3 billion and $5.1 billion annually and put roughly one million Californians at risk of losing food assistance entirely.

In Fresno, that’s meant more people lining up at food distributions. Organizations like My Homies Kitchen, the Khalsa Foundation’s gurdwaras, and Offer Kindness are stepping up, but the need is outpacing what they can provide.

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“Fresno being the breadbasket of the world, it doesn’t make any sense that people are food insecure here,” said Chef Xef Zubia, founder of My Homies Kitchen. “We are an industry that brings in billions of dollars in every surrounding county around us, yet, millions of dollars of food goes to waste every year.”

My Homies Kitchen holds food distributions every Saturday, starting around 10 a.m. People begin lining up around 7 a.m. The organization gets a shipment from the Central California Food Bank on Wednesdays, and volunteers stock shelves and refrigerators before the weekend rush. Demand has grown since the CalFresh cuts, Zubia said.

The organization also delivers food to elderly residents in the area, particularly because of the heat and the difficulty of carrying groceries home.

Zubia sees the work as more than charity. “They call it food deserts, it’s really a food apartheid because systemically they created this problem,” Zubia said. “There is actual redlining that’s happened in Fresno.”

The Khalsa Foundation helps provide food distribution at gurdwaras, specifically Guru Nanak Parkash Gurdwara and the Sikh Institute. Prableen Kaur, the foundation’s executive director, said food is served after religious services in the morning and can remain available throughout the day. A new meal is prepared in the evening. The meals are vegetarian — chapati and aloo gobi are typical offerings.

“You don’t have to be following the religion,” Kaur said. “You don’t have to be of the color, you don’t have to be the race. If you’re having financial struggles, you know that you can go get a free meal in the evening and could take your kids there during the day.”

Kaur said the need has grown as Punjabi families face financial pressures, including problems in the trucking industry and the broader job market. SNAP cuts have also impacted many families who come in for food.

“Everybody’s having it, so it takes away that anxiety or that taboo of being scared that someone’s going to find out that I am actually in financial crisis,” Kaur said.

Offer Kindness, a nonprofit launched in December 2025 by Simon and Aleeza Berman, rescues about 20,000 pounds of fresh produce each week. The organization started when the couple moved to Fresno from New York in October 2025 and discovered an orange tree in their backyard. After eating oranges for days, they began knocking on neighbors’ doors and offering the excess fruit.

The process continued until they had collected about 300 pounds of produce. They began driving around Fresno in the evenings, delivering 10 to 15 pound bags to residents. Some recipients told them they could not afford fresh food. Others said they were sick and unable to leave their homes.

As more farmers began contacting them, the couple recruited volunteers to help with the labor-intensive work of harvesting and distributing the produce. Today, the organization works with hundreds of residential properties and receives most of its produce from commercial farms that have excess crops or were unable to sell their products.

Offer Kindness holds its own public distributions, which can draw between 300 and 700 people. Simon estimates the organization’s produce reaches roughly 3,000 to 4,000 people each week.

“We don’t care who you are, everyone needs to eat,” Simon said. “As far as religion, politics, socioeconomic, whatever. Everyone’s got to eat food, and these days, especially with all this fresh produce, it ain’t cheap. So we’re happy to give to everyone.”

The Breakdown

• President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed in July 2025, included large cuts to SNAP (CalFresh in California).
• The California Budget and Policy Center estimates the cuts could cost the state between $2.3 billion and $5.1 billion annually.
• Roughly one million Californians are at risk of losing food assistance entirely, and roughly three million households who rely on the program face reduced benefits.
• More than 237,000 people in Fresno County were receiving CalFresh benefits as of July.

What This Means for You

If you or someone you know relies on CalFresh, the benefits are shrinking or disappearing because of a federal policy decision signed by President Trump. Local organizations are stepping up, but demand is growing.

What You Can Do

If you need food assistance, My Homies Kitchen holds distributions every Saturday starting around 10 a.m. Guru Nanak Parkash Gurdwara and the Sikh Institute serve free vegetarian meals after morning services and in the evening. Offer Kindness holds public distributions that draw between 300 and 700 people.

What to Watch

The federal cuts are already in effect. Fresno County had 237,000 people on CalFresh as of July. Fresno sits at the center of one of the nation’s top agricultural regions, yet millions of dollars of food go to waste every year while residents in the same county are food insecure.