SNAP On Campus: A UC Irvine FRESH Basic Needs Hub Fall 2021 CalFresh Outreach Report

The purpose of this report is to evaluate both new and traditional outreach efforts that the CalFresh team at the UCI FRESH Basic Needs Hub has adopted as a result of AB 85 funding from the State of California. Assembly Bill 85 amended the 2020-21 State Budget Act to include a one-time appropriation of $650,000 for the UC campuses to increase CalFresh outreach efforts. UC Irvine received $87,000 based on the proportion of food-insecure undergraduate and graduate students, which was estimated from data collected during the 2020 UC Undergraduate Experience Survey and the 2016 UC Graduate Student Wellbeing Survey. An assessment of in-person outreach and marketing and communication will be used to provide recommendations for future outreach efforts that the CalFresh team at UCI should undergo. Since AB 85 only provides a one-time appropriation, it is important that this assessment take into consideration which outreach efforts worked best so that they are replicated, as well as which efforts did not work too well in communicating to eligible students. My report is informed by my own experiences working at these outreach events and conducting CalFresh-specific outreach myself during my time with the FRESH Basic Needs Hub. It is also informed by interviews with student staff and professional full-time staff at the Hub. With this assessment, and with a cross-comparison of CalFresh efforts across other University of California schools, a 10-week outreach manual for Fall, Spring, and Winter Quarter will outline what outreach efforts could look like for the FRESH Basic Needs Hub moving forward. The report also includes a SNAP Outreach & Enrollment Toolkit for College Campuses that campus leaders or student basic needs advocates can use to create a CalFresh outreach program on their own campuses.