During the final week of February, the California State University coordinated CalFresh Outreach Week, during which its universities organized various outreach events to promote awareness of CalFresh, the government nutrition assistance program. CalFresh, California's version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), offers eligible individuals free funds to purchase groceries and meals.
These events aimed to educate students on CalFresh eligibility as many are not aware that they qualify to receive benefits. Nearly half of CSU undergraduate students qualify for the Pell Grant, indicating a significant financial need that likely also makes them eligible for CalFresh.
Beyond education, staff helped students complete a prescreening, fill out a CalFresh application and learn how to make the most of their benefits.
And while CalFresh Outreach Week is a concerted effort each spring and fall term, CSU Basic Needs staff work year-round to connect students with CalFresh benefits. In fact, CSU staff provided case management application support to nearly 36,000 students during the 2023-24 academic year.
CSU Showcases CalFresh
This year's events included a variety of engaging activities beyond CalFresh workshops, information sessions and food distributions—from planting produce and farmers markets to trivia contests and cooking competitions—and some have even been planned for dates beyond CalFresh Outreach Week.
A submission from Chico State's "Love Letters to CalFresh" activity. Chico State focused its CalFresh Outreach Week events on self-care, love and gratitude and hearing from students who benefit from the program. Students were able to participate in a giveaway by writing love letters to CalFresh or themselves and learn about CalFresh benefits, try healthy snacks and enjoy arts and craft activities during tabling events, including
Sips, Snacks, and Services which featured several campus departments. On social media, the Chico State team collaborated with university partners to share where students can use their CalFresh benefits on campus.
In addition to highlighting CalFresh Outreach interns and busting common CalFresh myths on social media, the CalFresh Outreach team at CSUN set up drop-in locations around campus during the week and hosted a CalFresh Food Fair alongside the CSUN Food and Pop-up Pantry. During the fair, students could learn about free and discounted admission tickets, discounted electricity and discounted Metro access, as well as complete a prescreening for CalFresh.
On April 9, the Basic Needs team at Cal State LA will host a Food Access Summit: Nourishing Community & Cultural Foodways, which will focus on food justice, cultural foodways and community resilience with an eye on indigenous food practices, sovereignty and access. The event will feature Indigenous plant-based chef and professor Claudia Serrato, artist Felicia Montes, culinary demonstrations, interactive workshops, a panel with Cal State LA faculty and staff, a student poster session and more. Students on the CalFresh Outreach team will also share information about basic needs and CalFresh.
Providing Housing
Thanks to state funding, the CSU is helping more students achieve their goal of earning a life-changing degree through the
Basic Needs Initiative, which takes a holistic approach to student well-being both inside and outside of the classroom.
All 23 CSUs support students' basic needs by offering help with food and housing, financial literacy programs and tools to close the digital divide. These services aim to improve graduation and persistence rates, and to make college more accessible to more Californians.
During the 2023-24 academic year alone, CSU campus food pantries served more than 79,300 students, and Basic Needs staff distributed emergency grants to more than 4,800 students to help cover unexpected expenses that threatened to derail their academic progress. Emergency grants can often be used to pay for food, housing, transportation, car maintenance, medical expenses and more, depending on the university .
CSUs also placed 866 students facing housing insecurity in emergency on- and off-campus housing through various programs, like the
CSU College-Focused Rapid Rehousing (RRH) program. Through RRH—now called the Rapid Rehousing & Housing Security Program (RRHHSP) in its next four-year iteration—CSU students receive subsidized rental support and ongoing case management.
The CSU is entering the second phase of the housing program after a four-year pilot program that included eight of its universities. As part of the second phase, the program underwent a revamp to broaden the definition of what housing resources the state funding can be used for.
This allows CSUs that might not have access to community-based organizations that offer traditional rapid rehousing services to partner with other organizations that provide rental subsidies, referrals to landlords and other housing resources.
The goal is to support a wider range of students experiencing housing insecurity, not just those needing intensive wraparound care and long-term support. The program now includes 18 CSUs and gives new campuses the opportunity to hire housing coordinators, expand emergency grant programs, and implement other innovative solutions to housing insecurity and homelessness.
The changes also outline how the CSU can better measure and track how this program is impacting graduation and retention rates, in addition to student well-being as a whole. One projected outcome, for example, is to achieve a 75% term-to-term retention rate for students who receive assistance through RRHHSP.
The CSU Chancellor's Office, which oversees the program, distributed the initial disbursement of the second round of funding to the 18 participating universities in January to support their efforts to develop and enhance strategies for students facing homelessness and housing insecurity.
Support for Student Parents
Another CSU advancement to support students' basic needs is the launch of a
systemwide Pregnant and Parenting Students Initiative (PPSI) that represents a multifaceted, community-driven approach to serving student parents. These efforts aim to develop a systemwide network that allows CSUs to share best practices and tailor solutions to their unique student populations.
The initiative builds upon the work of the
CSU Student Parent Network, a committee sponsored by the Michelson 20MM Foundation and comprised of faculty, practitioners and student parents themselves working on student parent programming and research across the CSU, as well as partners in the field.
The network has been working for years to ensure student parents have the support and resources they need to persist to graduation, including throwing their support behind California Assembly Bill No. 2881. Passed in 2022, AB 2881 seeks to improve access to classes and information about basic needs resources for student parents.
One provision of AB 2881 required that the CSU and California Community Colleges offer priority registration to student parents. To provide them with priority registration, universities need to identify their enrolled student parents, making the
formal collection of data on this student group a beneficial byproduct of the bill. Such data will help universities understand the unique characteristics or challenges of their student parents.
With additional funding from the foundation, the CSU has transitioned the advisory board from Michelson 20MM to the Chancellor's Office and will establish a systemwide taskforce that connects stakeholders from across the system.
Within the greater taskforce will be three committees focused on specific aspects of the mission—data collection and tracking, systemwide programs implementation, and policy and advocacy—and a stakeholder group made up of CSU volunteers that include students, staff, administrators, faculty and community partners dedicated to the PPSI mission.
“It's helpful when there's a centralized place for us to come together and be thought partners around how to do this work,"
said Carolyn O'Keefe, Systemwide Director of CSU Student Wellness and Basic Needs Initiatives. “I'm pretty excited about this, because I think this is a group of students that could use support that I think oftentimes fly under the radar."
Once fully implemented, the initiative aims to establish formalized services throughout the entire CSU, giving student parents a stronger and more unified voice within the system. Michelson will continue to provide financial support and host annual parenting student symposiums.
Learn more about Student Wellness and Basic Needs.