The Word is Text

The cost of living: food insecurity tightens its grip on Latino families in the San Fernando Valley

April 7, 2026April 7, 2026By El Popo Staff Writer
0

Working 50 to 60 hours a week, Elena Zurita still earns too much to qualify for food assistance — and too little to feel secure. Her story is one of hundreds of thousands.

By Gizelle Macias  |  April 7, 2026  |  El Popo, California State University, Northridge

Elena Zurita wakes up early, works two jobs, and comes home late. At 21, she is the primary financial provider for her household in Van Nuys, logging between 50 and 60 hours a week and stretching every paycheck across rent, utilities, gas and groceries.

She still does not qualify for CalFresh.

“They say I make too much to get help,” Zurita said. “But after rent and bills, there’s barely anything left.”

Her younger sister qualifies for CalFresh, receiving roughly $150 a month in benefits. Zurita does not. The gap between where the eligibility line falls and where financial stability actually begins is, for families like hers, the central injustice of the current system.

“Once the bills are covered, I’ve got very little left,” she said. “One unexpected expense and it throws everything off.”

Zurita’s situation reflects a structural crisis that runs well beyond one household in the San Fernando Valley. Chicano and Latino families across California are absorbing simultaneous increases in rent, utilities and food prices at a moment when the federal programs designed to buffer those shocks are facing the most significant proposed cuts in decades.

At the grocery store, Zurita makes every dollar count. Fresh produce and protein-rich foods are often priced out of reach, so her family gravitates toward items that are inexpensive and last: rice, beans, pasta.

“We buy what lasts,” she said. “You learn how to make it work.”

The tradeoffs involved in that kind of budget management are not merely inconvenient. Researchers have linked prolonged food insecurity to elevated stress, chronic illness and long-term health disparities, particularly in Latino communities, according to the California Latino Health Almanac published by the California Health Care Foundation.

“Working this much should be enough. But sometimes it’s not. We’re just trying to make sure there’s food in the house.”— Elena Zurita, 21, Van Nuys

CalFresh is, for millions of California families, the margin between adequate nutrition and chronic hunger. About 55 percent of CalFresh participants in California are Latino, according to the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative — a figure that reflects both the breadth of need within the community and the degree to which Latino families rely on the program to absorb rising food costs.

That reliance is now at risk. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has warned that congressional proposals in 2025 would cut federal food assistance funding significantly over the next decade, with reductions that could reduce or eliminate benefits for households currently near the eligibility threshold. Proposed cuts of roughly $186 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years — if enacted — would place the most pressure on working families like Zurita’s: those who narrowly miss current eligibility limits and have no additional buffer.

Bread for the World attributes the disproportionately high rates of food insecurity in Latino communities to structural inequalities that long precede any single piece of legislation: limited employment opportunities, stagnant wages and housing costs that have outpaced income growth across Southern California for more than a decade.

For Zurita, the policy debate has a daily face. She plans her grocery trips with a budget that leaves no room for error. She tracks prices. She chooses shelf-stable items over fresh ones. She works as many hours as her schedule allows.

For many Chicano and Latino families across California, her story reflects a painful and persistent reality: steady employment is no longer a guarantee of food security. The question is whether the systems designed to fill that gap will hold — or shrink further.

Sources

Post Views: 9