CalFresh Healthy Living
What is CalFresh Healthy Living?
CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL), California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed), is the nutrition education arm of CalFresh. It is the largest nutrition education program in the United States, and more than one-third of California residents are eligible for the program.
For more information, visit CalFresh Healthy Living.
How does CFHL connect with national SNAP-Ed?
SNAP-Ed is a federally funded grant program that supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions for people eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, known as “CalFresh” in California), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP-Ed programs build partnerships to provide direct education, indirect education (for example, via social marketing campaigns), and promote policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes to support healthy eating.
What is unique about this program?
- While SNAP-Ed began in 1988 under different names, and has operated in all US states since 2004, the CFHL on College Campuses grant is the first to provide SNAP-Ed to college students.
- Nine CSUs are currently funded, with California State University Chico as the grant lead.
- While some may view nutrition education as teaching people how to make healthy choices, our program embraces students’ food histories and seeks to understand and view as assets the social and cultural underpinnings of food choice. We keep this vision in mind as we conduct direct education (classes), develop social media messages, and engage in PSE work to help create environments that support healthy eating on college campuses.
