With a change in state law three months ago, there’s been a surge in food stamp applications in California, including Nevada County. The change allows Social Security Income recipients, including 24-hundred in Nevada County, to be eligible for the program, now known as CalFresh. The County’s Director of Social Services, Tex Ritter, says applications have doubled, or from about 300 to 600 a month…

Since 1974, SSI recipients in California, unlike most other states, have been ineligible for food stamps…

But Ritter says in today’s dollars that amount is far from adequate. He says ever-rising costs of other expenses, including rent, have left beneficiaries with less money each month to spend on food. He says the change is providing another 25 to 200-dollars a month, depending on the size of a household. It’s estimated that at least half-a-million SSI recipients in California are now eligible for CalFresh, the majority being disabled and low-income people who are 60 years and older.