On CalFresh? You Can Once Again Get $60 of Free Fruits and Vegetables Monthly — for a Limited Time
A paused state program providing extra money for families to buy fruits and vegetables if they use CalFresh — California’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — is up and running again, for now.
The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program works like this: When customers purchase food at participating markets, they just swipe their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. For every purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables with that card, up to $60, customers receive an instant rebate each month applied to the card.
This makes any produce purchased with an EBT card effectively free at the register — and leaves the customer with more funds left on their card that they can then spend on any other items covered by CalFresh. Check out KQED’s detailed guide on how to use the program if you have an EBT card.
The Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program was suspended in June due to lack of funds, and food security advocates began ringing the alarm about the program’s long-term future.
But in July, Fremont Assemblymember Alex Lee announced that $20 million had been set aside in the 2026-27 state budget to keep the program alive.
The revived program, which restarts Thursday, “will be running very slowly, as it has always,” said Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, senior manager at food policy nonprofit Fullwell, which helps administer the program. “There will be no changes. They’ll still be able to earn [that] $60 per month.”
Marquez-Nieblas emphasized that recipients do not need to sign up for anything, since the instant rebate is automatically applied to anyone on CalFresh.
“They’ll be able to do their regular shopping,” she said. “All they have to do is to go to one of those participating locations.”
Over 80 locations — from retailers to farmer’s markets — are involved with the Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program. In the Bay Area, these locations are all either in Alameda or Santa Clara County.
The California Department of Social Services’ website advises that participants call the location first to make sure it is still operating the program, given the pause over the summer. But according to CDSS, the program “is not being expanded to new retail locations.”
Back for a limited time
Since the funds that restarted the Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program were a one-time allocation in the state’s budget, the program has only returned for an unspecified limited period.
Advocates estimate it “will be running at least through the end of the year, perhaps into the early January before it pauses,” Marquez-Nieblas said.
But the money being available now is nonetheless vital: Marquez-Nieblas said not having the program active during the summer was difficult for families — especially with kids out of school missing free breakfast and lunch meals. At the time the Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program was last operating in June, there were around 99,00 families participating across the state, she said.
“We’ve been hearing since June: ‘When is it going to come back? When will the program be active?’” she said. “I’m excited that we can have an answer now.”
“We can start getting those dollars out the door as soon as we can.”