Committee advances bill to keep a state food‑security survey after USDA ended federal collection
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Summary
AB 1618 would require the California Department of Social Services to maintain an annual household food‑security survey in years the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not, proponents said; the committee passed the bill as amended unanimously and sent it to Appropriations.
The Assembly Human Services Committee on Tuesday advanced AB 1618, which would direct the California Department of Social Services to continue the statewide household food‑security survey in years the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not collect the data.
Author Assemblymember Chris Rogers said the measure addresses a data gap after the USDA discontinued its annual household food‑security survey and argued that lacking data risks making hunger "invisible." "This bill proposes to pick up that slack and to make sure we don't pretend that hunger is no longer happening because we stopped measuring it," Rogers said.
Yesenia Rabancho, associate director of policy and strategy at End Child Poverty California, testified that the USDA and Census historically provided consistent measures that tracked food insecurity across the U.S. and that recent federal changes risked leaving policymakers without reliable data. Rabancho summarized federal figures she cited — including a 2023 report she stated showed 47,400,000 people, including 13,800,000 children, faced food insecurity nationally — and said in California an estimated 22% of households and 27% of households with children experience food insecurity.
Brian Leahy, a volunteer with AARP's capital response team speaking for AARP, urged quick state action and cited AARP estimates about older Californians facing food insecurity, saying the survey will help counties, food banks and service providers target assistance.
Advocacy groups including the California Association of Food Banks, No Kid Hungry, County Welfare Directors Association and food‑recovery organizations registered support. Committee members praised the bill as building state capacity to measure hunger and the committee voted to pass AB 1618, as amended, to the Assembly Appropriations Committee; the roll call recorded unanimous 'aye' votes.
The committee's action advances California policy capacity for food‑security measurement; the measure will next receive fiscal review in Appropriations.