The Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) announces the expansion of the State of California’s CalFresh Program to now serve older adults and people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, beginning June 1, 2019.

SSI recipients may be eligible to receive CalFresh food benefits and applying will not affect their SSI benefit amount in any way.

“The expansion of the CalFresh Program will help our department serve the county’s most vulnerable and food insecure populations,” said DPSS Director Antonia Jiménez.

Anticipating that over 240,000 L.A. County residents may potentially benefit from this expansion, DPSS and its community partners are prepared to help residents by offering easy enrollment options which do not require them to come into a DPSS office.

DPSS has established a Call Center dedicated to taking CalFresh applications by phone. All County residents can contact the Call Center at 866-613-3777, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and a customer service agent will collect all the necessary information over the phone and process the application. In 74 percent of the cases, the application is processed on the same day.

The department also accepts applications through GetCalFresh.org, a simplified application accessible on any computer or mobile device which takes approximately eight minutes to complete.

“Because we understand that seniors and disabled residents face transportation and mobility challenges, we have developed these two options to serve them in the comfort of their own homes,” Jimenez added. “We are working closely with our community partners to help get this information out to those who will benefit most from this expansion. We’ve also created marketing materials in multiple languages to inform our diverse communities.”

For more information, please contact the DPSS Call Center at 866-613-3777, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., or visit the DPSS website at www.dpss.lacounty.gov.