Nevada County Grand Jury
• 2019-2020
CalFresh in Nevada County: Leaving Food (and Money) on the Table
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
In 2017, the County was the eighth lowest in California in its CalFresh PRI, which results in more food insecurity and the loss of economic benefits to the County.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The County should set an interim goal to increase CalFresh rates to the statewide PRI average of 71.8% by the end of FY 2021.
F2
The failure to enroll all eligible County CalFresh residents results in direct loss of over ten million dollars and an even higher indirect loss to the County economy.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The County should review operations of like counties, identifying practices that can be used to increase CalFresh participation rates.
F3
Other counties have higher participation rates and good outreach programs. They may provide helpful models for the County to use to improve local CalFresh participation.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The County should appoint a task force including community stakeholders, municipalities, and local businesses to provide recommendations to increase participation rates in CalFresh.
F4
Other counties are employing newer technology to assist in their outreach strategies, including text messaging, e-mail solicitation and prepopulated forms to all Medi-Cal recipients. Some also use IVRS systems, interactive call centers and electronic signatures to improve the customer experience.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
The County should set up and follow new protocols regarding the telephone system making sure that all the features (e.g. Spanish option and voicemail) are working all the time.
F5
The County’s 20-year-old telephone system used by HHSA is not configured properly, functions poorly, and is it not attended to regularly. It limits and discourages access.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The County should expand IVRS capabilities to its communication system, and should make sure that during initial inquiries a live person can be reached.
F6
The lack of a one-on-one case management system and use of group rather than individual interviews negatively impacted the application process.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The County should adopt a system that allows the same Eligibility Worker to follow individual clients all the way through the process.
F7
The County CalFresh team has not been staffed to its number of budgeted positions. In this budget year, three Eligibility Worker positions and one Office Assistant position have been eliminated. In addition, the active error rate in the application preparation was higher than many counties and the County is out of compliance (and well below statewide averages) with 30-day and three day expedited applications. All of these result in delayed benefits for recipients.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
The County should conduct individual client interviews instead of group sessions.
F8
Nearby counties require their CalFresh employees to attend community events, which increases the visibility or the program and lowering the perceived stigma of assistance programs. The County has an opportunity to participate in many more community events.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
The County should fill all budgeted positions in HHSA.
F9
HHSA outreach data makes it difficult to evaluate the performance success of outreach funds paid to other entities.
Related Recommendations (1)
R9
The County should identify why the current applications are out of compliance with State response expectations and do whatever is necessary to reestablish and maintain compliance.
Additional Recommendations 3
These recommendations are not explicitly linked to specific findings.
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R10The County should use its current staffing to perform outreach functions at more public events and locations (e.g., farmers markets, senior centers and housing, etc.) in the County.
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R11The County should review its outreach contracts with community organizations to determine if there are opportunities to improve coordination, training, metrics, and to achieve better results.
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R12The County should explore and expand technology used by other counties such as electronic signature by phone or e-mail, IVRS, text messaging reminders, and video conferencing.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Nevada County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office