Monterey, CA 38% Of Low Income Monterey County Residents Don't Have An Adequate Diet

There was a sad story in the Monterey Herald entitled "Thousands in county struggle to buy food."  Unfortunately, it's true.  We hear from senior citizens all of the time who are struggling to get by.  The cost of day-to-day living is going up faster than Social Security, which is supposed to rise only 1.5% next year.  "If your Pacific Gas & Electric Company bill goes up because it's cold out, or your prescription drug prices go up, you have nothing left for food," Joe Splane, a board member at the Food Bank for Monterey County, told the paper.  A survey by UCLA which was released last week found that there are at least 4 million Californians who couldn't consistently afford food between 2011 and 2012, not surprising given the high unemployment rate including the huge number of baby boomers who have been laid off and haven't been able to find a new job.  Roughly 38% of low-income Monterey County residents do not have access to a regular diet, according to the UCLA Survey.  Sadly, there is a bill before the Senate which would cut $4 billion from the food stamp program (CalFresh SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).  Although that's a fraction of the $40 billion that the House of Representatives proposed cutting, it's still a lot of food that will not be going into the mouths of Americans.