Inside the refrigerators at Corti Brothers in East Sacramento, bottles of River City Root Beer sit chilling near the deli counter. The name on the label is a nod to Sacramento and the waterways that it’s known for. 

Janet and Bob Lake created and own the root beer brand, and for them, it’s personal. Their brand reflects the city where they put down roots and built out their business. 

The couple got their start in the beverage distribution industry in Sacramento in 1999. At the time, they didn’t produce their own soda, but were learning the ins and outs of selling a beverage. Their work in distribution involved introducing themselves to store managers and convincing them to carry a product.

After about a decade in that business, the Lakes decided they wanted to take a shot at creating something of their own.

They began developing what would eventually become River City Root Beer. The process took about two years, during which they refined the flavor and built a brand around it. In 2009, the soda officially hit store shelves.

The brand now competes in a market dominated by plastic bottles and aluminum cans from large national brands. The Lakes say their focus will remain on glass-bottled sodas, which they say are key to its flavor and keep it more old-fashioned.

“We could go to cans and it would become a lot cheaper,” Bob said. “But do you think that product in a can would be just as good as it is in the bottle?”

Today, the brand includes four flavors: classic root beer, ginger beer, orange cream and blueberry lemonade. River City Root Beer is now sold in more than 600 grocery stores and restaurants across the state. The soda can be found at stores in the Sacramento region, including Raley’s, Nugget Markets, SaveMart and Lira’s Grocery.

But for Janet, the most meaningful moments in the business are not the sales made or the numbers or stores they have made it in. They happen when someone walks up to her and shares a story of drinking the soda. 

“When somebody comes up to you and goes, ‘I love your orange cream.’ I mean, it’s made them happy and created a memory. Those are the best,” Janet said. 

Janet says that after nearly twenty years on shelves, the soda has become nostalgic for many customers.

“We’ve discovered actually, we’ve been around long enough that people go, ‘I started drinking that when I was a kid,’” Janet said. 

One place where those connections are easy to see is Corti Brothers grocery in East Sacramento. The historic market, which opened in 1947, has long been known for its specialty foods and its support for local products.

Bob Lake, right, stands with Brian Runge, a head clerk at Corti Brothers grocery store, next to bottles of River City Root Beer inside the East Sacramento market on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.Tony Rodriguez/CapRadio

Inside, they keep a hefty stock of River City Root Beer bottles that sit in refrigerators near the deli. The Lakes have sold their root beer at Corti Brothers for years. They say it's a relationship that has gone beyond a store that carries their soda. 

Brian Runge, a head clerk at the store, said supporting companies like River City Root Beer is part of the store’s mission. 

“We want to support local businesses,” Runge said. “It’s a great product, we sell a lot of it,” Runge said. 

Runge said the Lakes have a real relationship with store staff.

“They always check in on us, which is very nice, especially because a lot of the other big corporations and brands don’t really care,” Runge said.

For Janet, that connection with Corti Bros became deeply personal during a difficult moment years ago.

Bob had undergone heart surgery, and Janet had stopped by the store to make a delivery. 

When she arrived, store managers asked her to step into the office. Janet said they told her they knew about Bob’s surgery and wanted to support them while he recovered.

“We know what happened, and then we know what condition Bob’s in and we want to do everything to help you out during this period of time,” they told Janet.

Moments like that, she said, are part of what has kept them going in the business for so long.

Today, Bob is 80 years old. He still enjoys visiting stores and seeing customers pick up his root beer. Bob jokes that soda might have something to do with his young spirit. 

“I’m 80 years old, all right, and so my secret to how I look at my age is one root beer a day,” he said.

While the soda industry is dominated by big corporations, the Lakes say they never built their business with the goal of beating the biggest brands. They say they want to create something that lasts.

Bob says the business has always been about something larger than soda. For him, the satisfaction comes from building something people will remember.

“It’s about taking a philosophy and seeing it grow and seeing it be successful and seeing it last,” he said. “That brings me a great deal of joy and pride.”

Janet says one of the things they are most proud of is that the soda recipe itself hasn’t changed since it first launched.

“It’s the same exact flavor that it was that we came out with in 2009,” she said. “2029 will be 20 years.”

This story was originally published on npr.org on Feb. 26

A mammoth solar farm is moving forward in the heart of California. If built, which seems increasingly likely, it would cover 200 square miles of land and generate 21,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power entire cities. Huge batteries will store some of that power until it's needed most.

Farmers are among the project's backers. They don't have enough water to grow crops on big chunks of their land, and they're looking for new uses for it.

"We're farmers, and we would rather farm the ground," says Ross Franson, president of Woolf Farming and Processing, his family's business. "If we had the water to do it, we would farm it. But the reality is, you don't. You have to deal with the cards you're dealt."

Franson is on the board of the Westlands Water District, a farmer-run organization that's a key player in this effort, negotiating with solar companies and government regulators on behalf of its members. Westlands is an agricultural power and has long represented the interests of farmers in a large swath of land on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley, between the towns of Firebaugh and Huron. Decades ago, it helped persuade the federal government to build a giant canal to deliver irrigation water to this area from rivers far away in Northern California.

Yet these farmers are now facing a new water crisis. The canal has been delivering less water in recent years because of droughts and competing claims on that water. Until recently, the farmers had a backup water supply: They could pump water from aquifers a thousand feet underground. Now, though, a new state law is coming into force that bans overpumping from the aquifer.

So farmers in Westlands have been leaving large chunks of land unplanted. Another large piece of land, now owned by the Westlands Water District itself, has been fallowed because irrigating it could release high levels of a mineral called selenium that can poison wildlife or people. The farmers, and the district, have been looking for new ways to put that land to use.

A solar developer called Golden State Clean Energy seized the opportunity. Several years ago, it presented Westlands Water District with a master plan for a collection of vast solar projects.

Developers say scale will justify new power lines 

Patrick Mealoy, a partner at Golden State Clean Energy, says they had to propose a solar farm that would generate an enormous amount of power to make the case for new multibillion-dollar power lines to carry electricity from the San Joaquin Valley to Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. Mealoy says smaller proposed projects have stalled because they weren't big enough to justify building those power lines.

"In order to actually have solar be productive, you need size and scale, a mass of projects that support the necessary investment in high voltage transmission lines to collect the electrons and move them," Mealoy says.

Getting the managers of California's electrical grid to approve construction of those transmission lines could be the project's biggest remaining hurdle. If built, the cost of those power lines, along with the benefits of greater electricity supply, eventually will show up in consumers' electricity bills.

Franson says his immediate reaction to the proposal was "Yes, we need to do this." Negotiating the details and completing an environmental review took several years, but in December, the Westlands Water District's board voted to move ahead.

Golden State is the plan's architect, but other solar developers will build sections of it. Construction could take a decade. Even though the Trump administration has abolished some financial incentives for solar projects, Mealoy says it's still a solid business opportunity.

"The state needs it. It's permitted. It's the right place for it. I'm excited about this," he says.

Grace Wu, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says "this is a fantastic place for solar" because the fallowed farmland isn't high-value habitat for wildlife.

Farmworkers wonder if they will also benefit

About 150 farmers within the Westlands Water District, including Jeremy Hughes, have signed up to put solar on some of their land. "We look at it as a new crop. We're harvesting electricity," Hughes says. The guaranteed income from those acres makes it possible to keep farming the rest of his land.

"Because of solar, we can continue farming in Westlands. It'll keep the farming community alive," says Jose Gutierrez, assistant general manager of Westlands Water District.

In the small towns nearby where many farmworkers live, however, there are worries that local residents won't see many benefits from the project. Among those towns is Huron, home to about 6,000 people. Rey León grew up here, working in his family's restaurant. Now he's the town's mayor.

Rey León is the mayor of Huron, Calif., home to many farmworkers who aren't yet sure what they will get out of solar coming to the region.Dan Charles/NPR

"I'm worried about Huron," he says. This solar deal may be great for the landowners of Westlands, he says, but less farming means fewer jobs for people who worked in the fields and orchards. León wants some of the solar revenue to flow to this community for education and training, to help people find jobs in this new solar industry.

"We are shareholders," he says. "We kept these communities alive, these economies robust. There's no excuse to leave us out."

Westlands and Golden State Clean Energy have been discussing what they call a community benefits package, but officials haven't released any details.

A possible model for other parts of California

Caity Peterson, at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), says other farming communities in California may try to imitate what Westlands is doing. Because they, too, will have to stop pumping so much water from the ground as the new state law comes into force. "There's going to be some kind of right-sizing of agricultural land in the San Joaquin Valley," she says.

According to a study that PPIC carried out, farmers in the valley will have to stop growing crops on between 500,000 and 1 million acres. There will be a lot of dry, sunny land in California, just waiting for a solar developer

By Ana B. Ibarra, CalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Most tortillas and corn masa products sold in California will soon have to include an additional ingredient — one considered key during pregnancy. The goal? Increase folic acid intake among Latinas of reproductive age.

Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed legislation that directs manufacturers of corn masa to add  0.7 milligrams of folic acid to every pound of flour or 0.4 milligrams to every pound of wet masa. These products will have to declare the addition in their nutrition labels. The law goes into effect in 2026.

Folic acid promotes healthy cell growth and has long been used to prevent serious birth defects. Medical and public health experts advise daily consumption during pregnancy, but also in the months before becoming pregnant. Research has shown that when taken before and in the early weeks of pregnancy, folic acid can help prevent birth defects by as much as 70%.

Women may not start taking prenatal vitamins until weeks or months into their pregnancy. Adding folic acid to food ensures they consume it in the first few weeks of pregnancy, which are key in the development of a baby’s brain and spinal cord. 

The federal government already requires certain food that is considered staples in an American diet to be fortified with folic acid. These include enriched breads, cereals and pasta. The federal government allows folic acid to be added to corn masa, but doesn’t require it. 

The new law “addresses a health equity issue, and California is once again leading the nation in protecting mothers and infants from preterm birth defects,” said Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, the Fresno Democrat and physician, who authored the law.

“I’m grateful that this legislation will provide a culturally appropriate way to address disparities to help prevent birth defects across our state. We expect to see the rest of our nation pay attention and follow suit,” he said.

Arambula pointed to state public health data that shows Latinas are less likely to take folic acid in the early weeks of pregnancy or before becoming pregnant when compared to other racial or ethnic groups. This puts them at higher risk of having children born with neural tube defects, such as spina bifida and anencephaly.

Between 2017 and 2019, the latest years for which state data is available, about 28% of Latinas reported taking folic acid the month before becoming pregnant, according to the California Department of Public Health. That compares to 46% of white women. Women on Medi-Cal, the state’s public health insurance program for low-income people, are also less likely to take folic acid before pregnancy compared to women on private insurance.

Arambula conceded to some changes as the bill moved through the Legislature. The law will not apply to small businesses that make their own masa nor will apply to snack foods.

It’s lunch time at Lincoln Crossing Elementary. And today, they’re serving up burgers.

But this meal might be a little different than what you’d expect out of a school lunch.  

“We have our grass-fed beef,” says Christina Lawson, the food service director for the Western Placer Unified School District. “We have our organic cheddar cheese from Rumiano, which is a producer up in Northern California. We have our local buns that are made by Dos Pisano’s, which is made out of the Bay Area.”

Lincoln Crossing Elementary has been working with the nonprofit Eat Real to phase out ultra-processed foods from school meals since 2023. Lawson says this school could offer an example of what school meals throughout the state could soon look like. 

“We're looking at really kind of changing the stigma of what school meals are,” she says. 

A new California law, kicking in next January, requires the phaseout of certain ultra-processed foods from school meals throughout the state. Some characteristics the law considers when targeting foods to remove or replace include high levels of saturated fat, sugar and sodium, alongside a host of other ingredients like non-nutritive sweeteners, color additives and thickeners. 

These foods have attracted mainstream attention in recent years, especially as the federal administration’s Make America Healthy Again campaign has named eliminating them a key issue. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went so far as to describe these foods as "poison."

But while federal officials have expressed interest in creating a standard definition for ultra-processed foods, it hasn’t happened yet. This law marks the first in the country to give that phrase a statutory definition. 

“We felt a lot of pressure to get it right,” says Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who represents much of the western San Fernando Valley and authored the bill behind the new law. “It's basically what the advocates and scientists said to us — science has taken us as far as they can go when it comes to defining ultraprocessed foods, but to have a workable legal definition, this is where we need policymakers to step in.”

What is an “ultra-processed food”?

Eat Real’s CEO Nora LaTorre says ultra-processed foods — like soda, for example — have been linked to health issues like chronic kidney and liver disease. Her goal is to replace those ultra-processed foods with what she calls more nutrient-dense “real food.” 

“Real food is the closest to how Mother Nature intended,” LaTorre says. “The longer the packaging ingredient list, the more processing it is.” 

That’s a pretty typical way to guess if a food qualifies as ultra-processed or not. But the phrase doesn’t actually have one, concrete definition — at least, not one that’s universally accepted. 

Charlotte Biltekoff, a food and culture expert with UC Davis, says there’s always going to be some disagreement about that. 

“Disagreement happens for lots of reasons, but in part, it happens because people have different points of view, different assumptions, different world views and different vested interests,” Biltekoff says. “And so, the disagreement doesn't just happen because the facts are unclear. It happens because people have different motives and aims.” 

She says the term “ultra-processed foods” originally comes from a 2009 Brazilian report that created a classification system called NOVA. The system organizes food into groups, from least to most processed. 

Biltekoff says it offers a way to understand health and food beyond basic nutritional facts.

“NOVA classification is centrally focused on the amount and kind of processing that a food undergoes as a means of determining its quality,” she says. “So, this is actually a really revolutionary way of thinking about good food, and it really challenged the established paradigms.”

Facing a new choice

Biltekoff says NOVA was meant to be a tool for researching the connection between the degree of processing and health, which could ultimately lead to creating policy. But, despite the popularity of conversations around eliminating ultra-processed foods, actually creating laws around addressing them can be controversial.

“I think a real uptake of an ultra-processed food classification is very disruptive to business as usual,” Biltekoff says. 

Gabriel says he knew the new law would have impacts beyond California schools. It’d also affect the companies producing food for students that don’t meet the law’s new guidelines. Inevitably, he says those businesses will have to face a choice. 

“If they want to continue to sell in [California], then they need to reformulate their product and make modifications so that it wouldn't include harmful additives and be considered an ultra-processed food of concern,” Gabriel says. “We think it’s going to put some extra pressure on manufacturers to do the right thing.”

As the law was discussed in the legislature, it got pushback from a coalition of agricultural producers and food manufacturers. Some were concerned about costs associated with adjusting food items around the law. Others worried it could inadvertently include foods that shouldn’t be banned — like foods that use natural additives like beet juice to enhance the color of a food, for example. 

Gabriel says part of creating the law meant narrowing the definition enough to avoid unintended consequences. 

“We took amendments, for example, to exempt natural seasonings and natural colorants,” he says. “So, just kind of working around the edges on some of the nuances there to make sure we had a really strong definition … but one that we also could implement and that would work for all of the diverse stakeholders.” 

The law requires schools to phase out ultraprocessed foods of concern no later than July 2029. It also bans vendors from offering these foods to schools starting in July 2032. Gabriel says he’s expecting to see concrete progress at schools toward phasing these foods out within the next couple of years. 

But a menu makeover requires investment. At Lincoln Crossing Elementary, that included new equipment for the kitchen and more staff training. 

Those efforts brought the school to where it is today, with more than half the meals served being freshly prepared. It’s a big jump from where the school started in the 2022-2023 school year, when only around 5% were freshly prepared with the rest of the meals being primarily heat and serve. 

But serving the food is only one part of the equation. Lawson says the key ingredient in this transformation is making sure students actually want to eat the food. That’s why she leads regular surveys with students to review new menu items. 

“We want them to like it,” she says. “We want them to enjoy the meal. We want it to actually taste good.” 

Californians who rely on CalFresh — the state’s version of SNAP, formerly known as food stamps — are seeing delays in their benefits because of the federal government shutdown. That’s leaving many college students uncertain about how they’ll afford their next meal.

Two federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to continue funding for the food program. But it wasn’t clear how fast that could take place as reloading the benefits can take one to two weeks. And the White House said on Monday federal contingency funds will pay for only half the amount people normally get. 

At Sacramento State’s ASI Food Pantry last week, transfer student Tylor Williams was  picking up groceries — produce, a few cans of tuna and Impossible Burgers. 

“You can get unlimited produce here so that’d be clutch,” Williams said. “I went on Facebook Marketplace and found a five-dollar juicer. I wasn’t even a juicer before, but now I know why people be juicing.” 

Sacramento State student Tylor Williams grabs Impossible Burgers Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, at the campus's food pantry. He's been on CalFresh for two months and said he'll need to rely on pantries like these even more because of delays.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)

Williams said this semester has been difficult. He recently moved to Sacramento from Los Angeles and has been relying on CalFresh for the past two months. 

“Covering these first two payments for housing — it definitely drained the account practically to zero,” he said. “So the benefits were really helpful, especially for the price of eggs, mayo, bread, oil, butter — like basic things.” 

Jane Nguyen, coordinator for the pantry, said demand is rising. Nearly 700 students visited the pantry in a single week earlier this semester, a record for the school. 

“We’re trying our best to keep volume, variety and balance for our students,” Nguyen said. 

That means making sure shelves are stocked with high-protein foods like tuna and culturally relevant items. She said the biggest factor driving demand is the rising cost of living. 

“If students are already spending the funds that they’re using on their rent, they’re not going to be able to afford a meal,” she added. “And that’s what we’re hoping our resource is able to fulfill — that gap for students.” 

UC Davis

Across the causeway at UC Davis, Leslie Kemp, who directs the school’s Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center, said the CalFresh delays could affect thousands of students. 

“We suspect somewhere between 3,000 and 6,000,” she said. “The level of impact is tremendous on our campus.” 

Kemp estimated that half a million dollars or more in food assistance for UC Davis students was delayed. 

“Students are always prioritizing what to pay and what they think they can get by without,” she said. “Food is probably the first thing to go, and that’s why CalFresh is so important — because it’s money dedicated to food.” 

Students can qualify up to $300 a month through CalFresh, which Kemp argued is critical as those enrolled in the program are among the most financially vulnerable on campus.

“We’re talking about students who have qualified for a federal government means-tested program,” she explained. “They are in need, and now their benefits are being denied.” 

A growing need

Jennifer Hogg, a senior research manager with the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, said the timing of the delay couldn’t be worse as more college students depend on CalFresh now than ever before. 

“The average college student today is really individually responsible for paying not only for school, but to pay for their basic needs like food and housing,” Hogg said. “So programs like CalFresh can really help ease the burden a little bit.”

A recent study Hogg worked on found that nearly 21% of UC Davis students were enrolled in CalFresh two years ago. Roughly 14% of community college students and 12% of graduate students were also enrolled. Data isn’t yet available for the CSU system. 

Hogg estimates UC and community college students statewide are seeing more than $40 million in benefits being delayed. 

“It’s not just the money that individuals rely on,” she said. “That money goes towards grocery stores and stimulates local economies.” 

Aaron Kunst, co-director of CalFresh outreach for Chico State’s Center for Healthy Communities, helps oversee CalFresh programs on college campuses statewide. He said the system is already stretched thin. 

“College students are seeking food resources at a dramatically higher rate,” he said. “We’re at a really challenging point because we have more demand and the same or less amount of resources for those pantries, basic needs staff and that overall work. That’s something that’s kind of all coming together in a perfect storm.” 

Making things work

Back at Sacramento State, transfer student Williams said he’s been stretching what he gets from the food pantry as long as he can. 

“I’ve been making a lot of tuna rice bean bowls cause I feel like that’s a good combo that’s high on protein, low in calories and you can get like at least three or four meals out of,” he said.

But with his CalFresh benefits running low, Williams said he’s already had to change his Thanksgiving plans.

“I was trying to do like a friendsgiving cause I felt like these midterms really hit a lot of people very hard… but my SNAP benefits, I’m damn near to my last 30, so I’m like already cutting it close to that,” he said. “I’m really just trying to save that for a last emergency.” 

Williams said he still plans to make something small with what he has as a way to thank friends who’ve supported him since he moved to Sacramento.

By Maria Godoy and Jennifer Ludden, NPR

The Trump administration says it will restart SNAP food benefits but it will pay out only half the amount people normally get.

The administration says it will use money from an Agriculture Department contingency fund. The $5 billion in that fund falls well short of the full cost of SNAP benefits — $8 billion — each month. In a court filing, officials said depleting that fund means "no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely."

The decision comes after two federal judges ruled that freezing payments for the country's biggest anti-hunger program is unlawful, even as the money ran out this weekend for the 42 million people who rely on SNAP to put food on the table. The government's response is part of the case in Rhode Island.

The Trump administration had until Monday to tell two federal judges its plans to restore funding for SNAP amidst the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The administration warns there could be lengthy delays before benefits get into the hands of low-income families who depend on SNAP to put food on the table.

About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month per person in SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Nearly 39% of recipients are children and adolescents under 18, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program.

Courts tell Trump to use emergency funds

Citing the government shutdown, USDA froze funding for SNAP beginning Nov. 1 — the first time that's happened since the country's largest anti-hunger program began six decades ago. On Friday, two federal judges ruled that this pause is likely unlawful.

Both judges said that Congress provided more than $5 billion in emergency funds for exactly this kind of situation, and they rejected the Trump administration's argument that it could not legally use that money to keep SNAP going. It not only can use the money, but must, the judges said.

In Rhode Island, Judge John McConnell Jr. called for the contingency funds to be used as soon as possible. A second judge, Indira Talwani in Boston, said officials could also tap additional money from customs revenues, but she left that decision up to the Trump administration — which it has declined to do.

After the rulings were issued Friday, Trump posted on social media that his lawyers would seek clarity from the court on how to fund SNAP. And if they got it, "it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay," Trump wrote.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN Sunday that the Trump administration would not appeal the judges' ruling. He said it's possible that funding for SNAP "could be" restored by Wednesday, but "there's a process that has to be followed. We've got to figure out what the process is."

Delays and 'a logistical nightmare'

A delay in benefits was expected regardless of the outcome of the court cases, because many beneficiaries have their cards recharged early in the month and the process of loading cards can take a week or more in many states.

The government said Monday that state agencies will have to recode their eligibility systems to adjust for the reduced benefits, and it is unclear how quickly state systems will be able to do so. It warned that in some states, these system changes "will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months."

The Trump administration has previously said that calculating partial payments is a logistical nightmare that could take time to arrange in the middle of a shutdown.

Several states have said they will use their own funds to cover any shortfall in SNAP funding. However, the Trump administration has warned it will not reimburse states. Several states, including Arkansas, New Hampshire and Washington, have also announced measures to help support food banks and pantries.

Food banks can't replace SNAP

What is clear is that a lot of money has disappeared from people's food budgets, and anti-hunger advocates say that food banks alone will not be able to make up the difference.

"We're in uncharted territory," Elizabeth Keever, chief resource officer at Harvesters, a food bank in Kansas City, Missouri, told NPR Sunday.

"It's nearly impossible to make up the gap that SNAP is leaving us, but we're doing everything we can to make sure that we are easing this burden for folks," Keever said. "It's just this really scary moment where there's a lot of uncertainty. So the gap is massive, and at the end of the day, food banks can't necessarily fill it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The federal government shutdown is approaching the one-month mark, and as it continues to drag on food benefits for nearly 42 million people nationwide are in limbo.

The USDA has announced that due to the shutdown no food stamp benefits, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be issued Nov. 1.

By extension California’s version of SNAP, known as CalFresh, will also be paused, leaving the more than five million Californians who rely on these benefits in a state of uncertainty.

Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration along with more than 20 other states, arguing the refusal to fund SNAP benefits is unlawful.

Local 211 helplines and other referral services are already seeing spikes in food assistance-related calls ahead of the November cutoff, reaching all-time high levels.

In Sacramento County these requests have already shown recent volatility, and they are coming as social safety net services are facing increased demand without additional resources..

Ethan Dye is the director of the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, which is responsible for administering CalFresh benefits to 270,000 people along with other assistance programs like CalWORKS, Medicaid and foster care assistance.

Dye spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about the preparations the county is making to navigate this challenging moment, and provide for the many people that rely on these benefits to feed themselves and their loved ones. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

The government shutdown started on Oct. 1.  How have you been navigating this uncertainty on the county level, especially as these federal benefits will be paused come Nov. 1?

We have done a lot of messaging to our customers in multiple languages, multiple formats. We believe individuals need to know what is going on. The state and county have looked at a variety of different methods… is there anything we can do to be able to add a benefit, to do things that the federal government can't or is not funded to do today? And unfortunately that’s not something that can happen.

So what we're doing is making sure folks know: call 211, go to your food banks. We’re trying to do a big messaging campaign with the food banks to say, “what do you really need?” So don’t just go to a food bank and say, “we have these things in our pantry,” but what do food banks really need for the community, so we’re able to maximize that effort?

Why are SNAP and CalFresh benefits being impacted? Aren’t they considered mandatory benefits even during a shutdown?

Unfortunately, it is not. It is an entitlement program. However, because the way the shutdown is, and it’s based on actual funding, there is no funding or allocation for the SNAP program. Therefore, there is no money [for] states to be able to pay onto the cards.

On the USDA’s homepage it says no benefits will be issued Nov. 1. How does that trickle down and impact the network of organizations and individuals in counties like Sacramento? 

It is a massive network and ecosystem. It's going to have a huge impact. We have 270,000 individuals who rely on CalFresh benefits, 90,000 of those are children. So with folks not being able to eat, we know that if you’re hungry you may not be able to concentrate in school, or your parents are going to be working overtime and doing things to figure out how they can bring more resources to the household and the family.

Really it’s about getting the communication out and figuring out what all the resources that the community has that we’re able to navigate people to.

You mentioned working with the state. Can they step in to buffer the pausing of federal food assistance?

The state cannot. The CalFresh benefit is 100% federally funded, and because [of] that there is no mechanism for the state to actually put money onto a card. And so, what that does is it creates the vacuum that we're seeing today that we’re all gravely concerned about. 

What is the average amount that a family or household receives if they're eligible for CalFresh in Sacramento County? 

We have approximately 150,000 cases, a case is a family household, and it’s about $370 a month. 

I also want to make a clarification that, in Sacramento and in the state of California, food benefits are issued by the last digit of a case number. So, if your last digit is a one, you get paid on the first, second, two, etc. So, if the federal government is able to come to a collective agreement, and fund CalFresh or fund SNAP, there may be a couple-day delay but other folks may not see an impact to their benefits because we issue over a 10-day period.

The longest government shutdown in history spanned 35 days and was back in 2018 during President Trump’s first term. How did Sacramento County navigate that time?

It was different because there was a different interpretation of how much money the federal government would keep in certain benefits. At one point a few years ago, they had two months worth of benefits that they would keep in a contingency. Now they have one month, which was October. And, the federal government is also not utilizing the contingency they have currently, which is about $5 billion, to fund benefits because they say they don’t have the authority to do so.

Have you ever encountered a situation like this where CalFresh can be paused?

I have been with the department for 20 years, and I never thought I'd be having this conversation. This is absolutely unprecedented, and it’s honestly the first time in my career and for my staff… not really having that ability to feel like we don’t have our hands tied. We’re doing everything we can, we’re working with the state [which is] doing everything they can, but this is a very different issue than we have ever seen.

When it comes to social services, and the related supports and infrastructure, why is funding them such a challenge?

Funding is a challenge really because of how the dollars come in. Whether it's its property taxes, state allocations and how other funding is brought in, and the cost of living is high for all of us. So when you start to see resources changing, then you start to see what we're really feeling today.

 I think one of the other issues that we see is federal policy changes that also impact the community. House Resolution 1 has a significant impact for us come October of next year. What that means is, the way CalFresh is funded today it’s 50% federal, 35% state, and 15% county. But with House Resolution 1 it changes to 25% federal, so the state and county have to now bridge another 25%. And as you start looking at the dollars that are in [the] community and how budgets play out, it becomes significant. 

What would you like the 270,000 residents in the county who rely on CalFresh to know as we inch closer to Nov. 1? 

There’s so many things. I wish we could have been able to get messaging out at the state level and county level a little faster, so people can make informed decisions on whether they wanted to maintain benefits or go to other resources sooner so benefits could stay on their card. What I really want to say is, don’t let this impact your ability to reach out. If you need to apply for benefits, come see us. Once the shutdown is over we’re able to get you on and get you benefits. 

Go to 211. Reach out to your community. Talk to your food banks. Do whatever you can do to maintain your family, yourself and do the best you can to be healthy.

Should new or renewing applicants still follow the process, even if the shutdown continues?

Absolutely. If you are not on CalFresh now and you feel like you need it in the future, come do an application. You can apply, call us, you can click online, you can come into one of our offices. If you have a renewal coming up, do your renewal. Don't let there be a lapse in benefits.

If CalFresh is paused come Nov. 1, what other resources for food are available for those who qualify? 

Right now all we really have at our disposal is having folks reach out to the food banks. We know that the governor released $80 million that was already in the budget to be allocated. He's moved it out faster, but we also need the community to step up… and this is not going to be an easy situation. We can all do a piece to make sure the folks are able to get through this.

You can hear more of Dye’s conversation about the potential disruption of CalFresh benefits and how his department works with the 211 helpline here.

Sacramento County's 211 helpline is bracing for an unprecedented wave of calls as approximately 270,000 county residents face delayed CalFresh benefits due to the federal government shutdown. With the disruption affecting 5.5 million Californians statewide, information and referral services are seeing call volumes spike even before November's benefits fail to arrive.

"People have already heard that their services are going to be affected and they're already calling us," said Tim Giuliani, Executive Director of Connecting Point, which operates 211 services for Placer and Nevada counties. "We're already receiving an uptick in CalFresh-related phone calls."

211 is a free, confidential service that connects callers to local social and health resources. Available 24 hours a day, it helps residents find food, housing, healthcare, and other essential support. In Sacramento and neighboring counties, trained specialists answer calls and maintain databases of verified community programs, including CalFresh application assistance and food pantries.

Sacramento and Yolo county's 211 provider, Community Link Capital Region, has already experienced an increase in call volume. The service has seen significant growth in recent years, with calls jumping 28.9% from 2023 to 2024, reaching 203,961 by the end of last year.

Gabriel Kendall, Executive Director of Community Link Capital Region, said the organization is projecting approximately 275,000 inbound calls by year's end if current trends continue. "Call volume is at an all-time high. The need is at an all-time high, and there are quite frankly less resources accessible, so it's going to have some really significant impacts," Kendall said.

The timing couldn't be worse. Food assistance requests to Sacramento County's 211 have already shown recent volatility, with food-related calls climbing throughout October. Among those seeking food help, 45.8% requested food pantry information during that most recent week.

"Because of the shutdown, at this time CalFresh benefits will not be funded for the month of November," said Janna Haynes, Sacramento County Public Information Manager. "In Sacramento County 270,000 people rely on those food benefits to feed themselves and their family. Thousands of children will be affected by the loss of food benefits in November."

The challenge for 211 operators is managing increased demand without additional resources. "We would love to ramp up staffing to handle that call volume, but the funding is not there to support it," Kendall explained. "We're basically being tasked with doing more with less resources."

Instead of hiring additional staff, 211 services are planning to shuffle staffing to handle increased call volume. "I hope it looks like nothing," Giuliani said when asked about potential longer wait times. "I hope that's an internal management thing that we can solve."

Placer County Health and Human Services is also anticipating the surge. "We are expecting increased phone and foot traffic volume as customers experience benefit loss," said Katie Combs Prichard, the agency's communications manager. Placer County serves 29,000 individuals receiving CalFresh across 17,000 households, with September benefits totaling an estimated $5.3 million.

While 211 operators encourage people to call the three-digit number, they're also directing residents to alternative resources to manage demand. Much of the information available by calling 211 can be found on 211.org, allowing people to search for services themselves.

Sacramento nonprofit Alchemist CDC also maintains an interactive map of food providers in the area.

Governor Gavin Newsom has announced $80 million in fast-tracked state funding for food banks and plans to deploy the California National Guard to support food distribution, mirroring the state's pandemic response when it distributed 800 million meals.

"Trump's failure isn't abstract — it's literally taking food out of people's mouths," Newsom said in a statement. "This is serious, this is urgent — and requires immediate action."

Local food banks are expected to see increased demand. Kendall said coordination efforts between the county and providers should help them rise to the challenge by keeping resource information up to date. "I'm hopeful that with that coordination and that influx of support resources, there will be the ability to rise up to this wave of need," he said.

Both 211 operators stressed the importance of CalFresh recipients continuing to complete renewal paperwork, even if November benefits are delayed.

"This is not a situation where people's benefits are over," Kendall emphasized. "It's a delay because of the government shutdown. We really want to encourage people to complete that SAR-7, complete their renewals to make sure that they're staying enrolled for when the program turns back on."

There is no estimated date when benefits will resume. However, recipients who still have funds on their EBT cards can use them as normal, though benefit amounts will not reload in the new month.

Residents needing food assistance or other support services can call 211 any time, day or night, to speak with a live operator, or text their ZIP code to 898211 for text-based assistance. The service maintains a database of nearly 3,000 available services, ranging from food pantries to housing assistance and healthcare resources.

"If you have questions about your services or any community resource in general, I would encourage you to pick up the phone and dial 211," Giuliani said. "We look forward to talking to those that do call."

The new Terra Madre Americas festival rolls into Sacramento this weekend, combining the region’s “farm-to-fork” mentality with an international push to eating local, clean and traditional.

The slow food movement dates back to the 1980s in Italy, and focuses on promoting cultural and biological diversity, food education and improving access to healthy and resilient food systems.

Slow food is a major component of the international Terra Madre Salone del Gusto festival, and will be in the spotlight in Sacramento with workshops, panel discussions, tastings and more.

One of those presenters is a Placer County grower who has fully embraced the slow food ethos:  Camelia Enriquez, the farmer and owner of Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle.

Enriquez says her farm is part of a small Slow Food Farm network in the United States, with just seven across the country and three in California. She spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about what slow food means to her, and how it can be experienced in schools, farmers markets and beyond.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

How did you get started doing all of this?

I grew up on the farm. I’m fourth-generation, so I was around my grandfather and my parents working together. I definitely decided from a young age that I didn't want to be a farmer, so I moved when I was pretty young to the city. That was my ideal place, to go as far away from a farmer as I could go.

I moved to San Francisco and lived there for a while, met my husband, got married really young, moved around California and really got to see all the different types of agriculture based on where we were living. All those farming roots came back to me.

I started seeking out farmers' markets, and then having kids, just making sure they’re exposed to healthy food. We moved back up to the orchard after my grandfather passed away… became partners, and I took over the orchard in 2020.

What do you grow at Twin Peaks Orchard?

We grow several different types of crops, we’re almost year-round. Throughout the summer we grow stone fruit and row crops like tomatoes, squash, melons, eggplant, things like that. And then we transition into like the shoulder season that we're about to be in right now. We have a specialty crop that dominates all the different things that we're harvesting called the jujube, and then we transition into the fall with citrus and persimmons, some winter squash, those types of crops. That carries us in through mid-winter, and then we have a little bit of breathing room where we're not harvesting… but then we’re in full work mode to get ready for the next season.

What's a jujube? 

There's some debate over this, but it's allegedly known as the world's oldest cultivated fruit. It’s been around for so long, but it’s something that a lot of people here don’t really know what it is. 

Everybody asks me, “what is a jujube like?” It’s a small fruit that tastes a little bit like an apple, a little bit like a pear, a little bit like a date. When it’s dried it’s also known as the Chinese date. It’s used for health properties, for nutrient dense needs. It’s just this beautiful little super fruit that does so many things, and it’s definitely something that is listed on the slow food “Ark of Taste.”

What is the slow food movement? How would you describe it to someone? 

For me it’s a movement, but it’s a lifestyle so it just doesn't encompass how food is grown or how food is processed. It’s so many different things. There’s a lot of social responsibility as part of slow foods. It’s promoting different cultural foods and farming practices.

It’s something that's always been really important to me growing up, and it kind of came back to me as I became a farmer. Just slowing down, having access to really great food that's healthy, that supports biodiversity in the soil, and also is able to reach the food system in our local community.

When did you first start to learn about slow food? Or has it always been part of your life?

About 25 years ago I was at a farmers market in Sebastopol which has a great slow food presence. I got some Gravenstein apples to make applesauce for my kids, and that’s when I started to understand that this was an heirloom variety that was promoted really widely with slow food because it was on the “Ark of Taste.” [That’s] a list of different types of produce and food that is at risk of being extinct because of its heirloom characteristics.

Camelia Enriquez is the farmer and owner of Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle. She says the slow food movement is a combination of promoting cultural and healthy foods, social responsibility, biodiversity and sustainable farming.Courtesy of Camelia Enriquez

I really started to find out more about slow food, and then just [realized] that so much of what I saw growing up is part of slow food and [that] ethos. 

Why do you think it's so important to celebrate the slow food process, especially as we're welcoming the new Terra Madre Americas festival?

California's known for its agriculture. I know we have a worldwide reach with our agriculture. Where I come from, Placer County, there’s a deep history of farming. We’ve been there since 1912 and my grandparents were very involved in setting up this system of shipping fruit across the country. Our area… we had access to water. We had perfect climate, perfect soil, and we grew a lot of produce.

I think just being able to talk about that, especially when we are always losing farms to buildings and suburban areas… I think it’s really important for us to continue to promote slow food and farming, and all the things that come along with it.

Are there any downsides to slow food? Are people unaware of what this movement or lifestyle is, or means? 

I don't really see it as a downside, I see it more as an opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to share why it's important not only to our local community or to the economy. I see it as an opportunity to educate. If we could reach somebody that’s just coming in and has no idea about the ethos of slow foods, what it meant, or how important it was to preserve heirloom-quality varieties of fruits and animals and things like that.

How would you recommend people interact with or experience slow food locally?

Go to the farmers market. Start getting to know your farmers. Visit restaurants that support farmers. You’re just aware of it without being aware of it. We have food that’s going into our public schools that was made available through farm-to-school programs. So if you have school-aged children, you might already be involved with a slow food-type of movement.

I think you'll start to notice when you go to the farmers market, you’ll see the name of a farmer and a variety of produce. And then, you’ll go into a restaurant and see that name of the farm, or they’ll highlight that name of the produce. You’re in the best place for it, Sacramento’s the best area for that type of lifestyle.

You can listen to more of Enriquez’s conversation about the slow food movement and her participation in the upcoming Terra Madre Americas festival in Sacramento here.

Last September Visit Sacramento’s president and CEO, Mike Testa along with others, visited the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Italy, Europe's largest food festival.

With thousands of attendees, over 700 vendors, and a global celebration, Testa said he had an epiphany — this is what the Terra Madre Americas could become.

“It was incredible,” Testa said. “It's great to be able to see where we're starting and where we could end up.”

This Friday, September 26, through the weekend, the Safe Credit Union Convention Center will transform into a global hub of culinary experience.

The Terra Madre Americas is a free food festival that aims to educate people about sustainable food and brings together chefs, farmers, food enthusiasts, and policymakers from across the nation. 

Visit Sacramento did a trial run of the festival last year in May at the Memorial Auditorium.

“It's certainly not going to happen overnight in Sacramento. But I walked away from that event in [Italy] thinking there was just a huge opportunity to shine a global culinary spotlight on Sacramento.”

The festival will feature wine and beverage tasting, cooking demonstrations from celebrity chefs, a pop-up restaurant, vendor booths selling food products, and more.

Testa said they’ve signed a 10-year deal with Slow Food International to host the Terra Madre Americas festival in Sacramento.

“This is the American version of that long-standing event. Sacramento is the first city in the United States to host it,” Testa said. “It's essentially an event that brings together food policymakers, farmers, restaurant tours, chefs and everybody in the food world to have larger conversations about food.”

Sacramento has hosted a free Farm-to-Fork Festival for the past 12 years, but they’ll be combining both festivals into one, according to Testa.

“The Farm to Fork Festival will be outside on the streets, and people are familiar with that in the sense that it's food booths, live music, some cooking demonstrations and things like that,” he said. “Then inside the convention center will be Terra Madre America. Think of a farmer's market on a grand scale that has a number of different wares to it.”

Brad Cecchi is executive chef and co-founder of Humble Concepts Restaurant Group, which owns Canon in East Sacramento and Franquettes in West Sacramento. He said the event will include a market exhibit with 150-200 exhibitors, with various tastings.

Cecchi is a board member for Visit Sacramento and serves as the culinary advisor, so he’s been working alongside the events team since the inception of the festival.

“I think that we put together a really dynamic festival,” Cecchi said. “We have chefs like Jeremiah Tower, Drew Deckman, Elizabeth Faulkner, Mary Sue Milliken, and Sean Sherman all doing pop-up meals in our Terra Madre Bistro.”

Cecchi also mentioned the Enoteca, where they will showcase 200 plus wines, beers and spirits. Additionally, he noted there will be live music from bands like The War on Drugs and Spoon. 

“This is really a celebration of food and so every good celebration should have great music,” he said. “People can kind of go to the convention and learn during the day, and then around dinner time or lunch time, they can spill out into the streets and celebrate and have a good time and see some really great live music.”

The event will also feature educational panels and workshops spanning three days, with UC Davis Health serving as a presenting sponsor.

According to Santana Diaz, the executive chef of UC Davis Health, the organization operates as a Farm-to-Hospital food program, serving 6,500 to 6,700 meals daily, which he believes aligns with the Slow Food International ethos. 

Diaz said UC Davis Health will host panel discussions on sustainable beef procurement, aquaculture, and viticulture, along with food demos featuring registered dietitians. He said the goal is to inspire sustainable changes in other institutions.

“We have multiple executive chefs throughout this program between both campuses, paired with an RD—registered dietitian—to help talk about the health benefits of the foods that are being demonstrated,” he said. “And we'll actually be giving out tastings of every demo that we do, so the audience can connect with what's happening on the stage.”

Testa added it’s tricky to gauge the amount of attendees because it's a free event, but based on previous Farm-to-Fork Festivals, they’ve welcomed 100,000 people over the weekend.

Celebrity chef Alice Waters of the world famous Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, will also be part of the educational panel and Workshops on Saturday and Sunday. 

Four of Sacramento's culinary titans were honored with their own murals Monday as part of the city’s Wide Open Walls.

Titled “Legends of Hospitality", the series features chefs, restaurateurs, and business owners Lina Fat, Darrell Corti, Biba Caggiano, and Randy Paragary. 

The black-and-white, photo-realistic murals are located in Downtown Sacramento's ‘Jazz Alley’ behind the Sheraton Grand Hotel. The alley is due to feature two dozen more murals celebrating the city’s artistic and cultural heritage once completed. The pedestrian corridor will also be fully lit with LED and market lighting, according to Wide Open Walls organizers. 

The murals were painted by Ian Wilkinson, a North Carolina-based artist known professionally as Ian the Painter. He spent several days on the piece, often working through the night until 5:30 in the morning.

“I was gifted with the honor of getting to illuminate these folks that have been so vital to the service and hospitality [industry] of Sacramento,” Wilkinson said.

Though unfamiliar with the honorees before the project, only meeting Corti the morning of the unveiling, Wilkinson described forming an intimate connection with each of them. 

“It's kind of a magical experience because even if you haven't met the person, you develop a relationship with them [by] studying the nuances of their face,” Wilkinson said. “I learned certain things about people without even knowing them.”

Over the years, Wilkinson has produced several murals around Sacramento including working with local schools and painted a mural at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity. Wilkinson is also slated to paint the largest mural west of the Mississippi at the UC Davis Health campus. At 50,000 square feet, the mural will be 100 feet tall and 500 feet wide.

“I love Sacramento,” Wilkinson said. “It's got a real sweet place in my heart. I'm glad to come back here anytime.”

The mural unveiling was attended by Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum who emphasized each of the figure’s tremendous impact on Sacramento’s food scene.

“Even if you don’t know their names, you've been to their restaurants, you know their food,” Pluckebaum said. “They've been leading Sacramento's culinary arts for decades and we owe so much to them.”

LINA FAT

Chef and restaurateur Lina Fat was a key figure behind the Fat Family Restaurant Group which operates one of Sacramento’s most iconic restaurants, “Frank Fat’s.” The restaurant was founded by her father-in-law who started the business in 1939.

Fat immigrated from Hong Kong at the age of 17, according to her obituary in the Sacramento Bee. She went on to attend the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy where she would meet her husband, Ken Fat. Fat told CapRadio’s Beth Ruyak in 2019 how she joined the family business after a decade-long career in pharmacy. 

The family was planning to open a restaurant in Old Sacramento called “China Camp” to commemorate Chinese immigrants in the United States. The family had difficulty wrestling with the menu to distinguish it from “Frank Fat’s,” even considering the option of selling the land back to the city. Fat proposed a concept based on Hong Kong cuisine.

Fat didn’t expect to run a kitchen, she thought she’d simply provide recipes for another chef to take over. 

"The week before we opened, my brother-in-law Wing [Fat] assigned duties to the family, who is going to do what. When he came to me and he said. 'Oh, you're in charge of the kitchen.' And I'm the type who likes challenges, so I said ‘okay’."

She joined the business as Head Corporate Chef in 1974 and helped develop menus at the family’s other restaurants as they expanded into Roseville and Folsom.

Fat was recognized as the Sacramento Restaurateur of the Year by the California Restaurant Association in 1987, Chef of the Year by the California Capitol Chefs Association in 1998, and  recipient of the James Beard "America's Classic" Award in 2013. 

Darrell Corti

Mural of Darrell Corti, owner of Corti Brothers in Sacramento. Sept. 15, 2025.Chris Felts/CapRadio

Described as a culinary encyclopedia, Darell Corti is one of the most respected food and wine experts in Sacramento. His corner grocery store, “Corti Brothers”, has been a city staple for nearly 80 years. It was established by his father and uncle, Frank and Gino Corti.

Corti Brothers started in 1947 with a goal of increasing Sacramentans’ culinary experiences with a broad selection of delicacies and wine.

Corti joined the store in 1964 and became a purveyor of gourmet ingredients including olive oil, imported cheeses and white truffles as he traveled around the world.

“In the early days we just did an Italian type business,” Corti told CapRadio in 2024. “I'm the one who sort of became more interested in doing things all over, so the travel part, going to places like Salona del Gusto. They are really interesting things that you have to do in order to learn things.”

Corti is often credited with boosting Amador County’s wine profile by bringing attention to its zinfandel vineyards through the selection at his grocery store. 

The Italian government knighted Corti as a cavaliere for his promotion of italian products including the introduction of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale to America, according to the store’s website. 

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History named Corti to its advisory board known as the “Kitchen Cabinet”  in 2014 as part of its American Food History Project.

The Special Food Association inducted Corti into the 2016 Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintner’s Hall of Fame in 2008.

Biba Caggiano 

Mural of TV personality and restaurant owner Biba Caggiano.Chris Felts/CapRadio

Born in Bologna, Italy, Biba Caggiano moved to Sacramento with her husband, Vincent, in 1969 after living in New York. Being homesick, Caggiano would have to travel to San Francisco to find authentic Italian products, according to her obituary published in the Sacramento Bee.

As a stay-at-home mom, Caggiano began looking for a new outlet after her daughters started attending school.

“Friends of mine kept asking me ‘why don't you give us the recipe of the dinner you had the other night at your house’ so I found myself giving out recipes,” Caggiano said on CapRadio’s Insight in 2006. “I thought it was preposterous because my mother used to say I couldn't even boil water.”  Caggiano found herself providing cooking lessons in her home kitchen to those who asked and said that’s where her career began. 

She graced America’s television screens starting in the late 80s on TLC’s “Biba’s Italian Kitchen.” She wrote nine cookbooks which reportedly sold 600,000 copies. And her “Biba Restaurant” in Midtown Sacramento served diners for over 30 years where she spent many days and nights tending to her customers. 

“I know that I work many hours, but I love what I do so much that I don’t realize when I’m there, I am happy.” Caggiano said. “My restaurant is a happy place because people come in, they eat well most of the time and they are happy. And when you see smiling people around you, what else can I ask?” 

Randy Paragary

Mural of restaurateur and businessman Randy Paragary. Sept. 15, 2025.Chris Felts/CapRadio

Restaurateur and businessman Randy Paragary established over 20 restaurants in the Sacramento region alongside his wife, Stacy, and chef partner, Kurt Sparto, through the Paragary Restaurant Group founded in 1993.

Labeled as a pioneer of Sacramento's food scene, Paragary opened his first restaurant, The ParaPow Palace, in 1969 when he was 22. Others followed in its footsteps including Cafe Bernardo, Centro Cocina Mexicana, and Paragary’s in Midtown. 

Paragary’s investments, and partnership with the city, helped bring new development to the Convention Center/Community Center area, the R Street corridor, and the Sutter district, according to the Paragary Restaurant Group website.

The final project Paragary saw to completion prior to his death in 2021 was the Fort Sutter Hotel at the corner of 28th Street and Capitol Avenue, the first hotel in the Sutter district. 

Paragary was a graduate of McClatchy High School, Sacramento State University and the McGeorge School of Law.

What is usually a connector over the Sacramento River between the City of Sacramento and Yolo County — the Tower Bridge — was transformed into a culinary hub and dinner site.

Hundreds of people gathered on the Tower Bridge on Sunday afternoon for the 12th annual Tower Bridge Dinner, which featured a menu made by four chefs in the Greater Sacramento area. 

The chefs — Bucky Bray from NixTaco in Folsom, Devin Dedier from Vacanza Romana, Jeana Pecha from Omakase Por Favor, and N’Gina Guyton from the recently closed Jim Denny’s —curated a menu using fresh ingredients grown by local farmers.

“It's one of Sacramento's biggest marquee events,” Bray said. “We went fully inclusive and collective on the menu, so there's little bits and parts of each and every one of us on each in every course, it's awesome.” 

Unlike previous years when chefs each came with their own dishes, this year they collaborated to create each plate.

The dinner, which began in 2013, is a Visit Sacramento event that celebrates the farmers and agriculture that is produced in the Sacramento region.

“It's really a celebration of the hospitality community, but it starts with the farmers,” said Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento. “When you talk about the ‘Farm to Fork Capital,’ a lot of people think about the restaurants, but no, it's the farmworkers. It's everything in between. It's those farms that ultimately get to our forks. And that's what this event celebrates.” 

According to Testa, the dinner serves as a fundraiser for scholarships for the children of migrant farm workers, and it supports events like Terra Madre America, which takes place in late September.

“Those are free events, and I always tell people they're free to everybody,” he said. “An event like this helps to drive funds to put those events on.”

Phil Pluckebaum, the councilmember for District 4, attended the dinner, but as a staff member helping to serve the food. He said he grew up working in restaurants, so serving the Sacramento community is a fun way to give back.

“The farm to fork has been a massive benefit to the region, not just because of our agricultural roots, but because of the quality of cuisine the region produces,” Pluckebaum said. “We're trying to showcase some of the best in the cuisine in Sacramento, and just provide a really unique and fun experience for folks.”

The three-course meal was influenced by California, Asian, Mexican and Native American cuisines. The dishes included an Ash Crusted Albacore, a Blue Corn Rabbit Tamal and a Braised California Bison.

It wasn’t just entrees that people could try; there were also appetizers and desserts on display from local restaurants and bakeries in Sacramento. Chef Yekaterina Balagian from Seasons Kitchen and Bar in Davis crafted a stuffed grape leaf appetizer with duck confit, True Origin Foods rice, black currants and urfa biber garlic yogurt. The Sawyer Executive Chef Sam Shafer made a ratatouille tartine for guests to enjoy. 

Many of the region’s leaders were in attendance, including Sacramento State President Luke Wood, UC Davis Chancellor Gary May, Cal Expo CEO Tom Martinez and Sacramento Fire Chief Chris Costamanga, to name a few.

Aziz Bellarbi Salah, a general manager for several restaurants in Sacramento, said the event embodies chefs and growers coming together to create something beautiful.

”That connection, maintaining ‘local’ as a strength, and insisting on great ingredients keeps our entire region, its economy, and its creativity flowing,” he said.

Visit Sacramento hosted its annual State of Tourism event on Wednesday at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center. The spotlight was on fall food plans, including changes to the Farm-to-Fork Festival and the announcement of this year’s Tower Bridge Dinner chefs.

The organization announced that the 2025 Farm-to-Fork Festival will merge with Terra Madre Americas, a food conference rooted in Italy and hosted by the Slow Food organization. The event is scheduled to take place downtown from September 26-28 and will span both indoor and outdoor venues.

“There’s comfort in the familiar,” said Visit Sacramento President and CEO Mike Testa. “Change comes with intention, and often risk.”

The Terra Madre conference, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees to Torino during even-numbered years, will now alternate between Italy and Sacramento. Last year’s smaller version of the event made its debut at the Memorial Auditorium, but while Testa said it was “intriguing,” he admitted to it being “a bit underwhelming.”

Bringing the full-scale version to Sacramento, he said, could shine a broader spotlight on the city’s culinary identity. “To be able to host an event of this caliber in Sacramento is a big deal,” Testa said. “There’s not a city in the United States that wouldn’t love to host this size convention.”

Testa pointed to the region’s agricultural surroundings as one reason Sacramento is a natural fit. “There’s a million and a half acres of agricultural farmland that surround this region,” he said. “Sacramento grows so much of the food that feeds the rest of the country. When you're here, you're in the epicenter of food.”

The Tower Bridge Dinner, which traditionally kicks off the Farm-to-Fork Festival, will also see a shift this year. Instead of each chef preparing a single course, the full menu will be designed and executed as a group. The 2025 lead chefs include Devin Dedier of Vacanza Romana, Jeana Pecha of Omakase Por Favor, N’Gina Guyton of Jim Denny’s, and Bucky Bray of Nixtaco Folsom.

“That’s the difference between what they’ve done the years before,” Dedier said. “Normally everybody has a course. It’s collaborative, but this one is collaborative with no end, we just have a single menu.”

The dinner will serve more than 800 guests on Tower Bridge, requiring months of preparation. “We’re cooking for 800 plus people,” said Guyton. “It’s taking these recipes that might feed like one to two people and multiplying that and making sure that it still is an amazing dish at the end of the day.”

Planning for the dinner has already begun because it involves working closely with small farms to secure ingredients in advance. “There’s some small farms I want to use,” said Pecha. “We have to reach out to them now, because this quantity isn’t necessarily what they’re used to.”

Bray said that when the time comes to prepare the food, the challenge will go beyond feeding hundreds of mouths. “It’s a specialized menu for 850 people on the bridge with a semi-real kitchen that we have to transport all the way up,” he said.

While the dinner has its challenges, the chefs said it’s also a meaningful opportunity for everyone involved, including their teams and communities.

“My staff shows up every day and gives 110 percent not knowing if anyone’s going to recognize them,” Pecha said. “So the fact that we can put Lincoln on the map; I’m doing this just to showcase my team’s hard work because there’s no way I would be here if it wasn’t for them backing me.”

The chefs still have a few more months to prepare; scaling recipes, confirming ingredients with local farms and ironing out the logistics of one of the region’s most ambitious dinners. The Tower Bridge Dinner is set for Sunday, September 7.

The newly combined Farm-to-Fork Festival and Terra Madre Americas conference will bring chefs, food producers, and visitors together in downtown Sacramento from September 26 to 28. While the full schedule has not been released, more details are expected in the coming months.

Nearly half of undocumented immigrants in California are food insecure, often being forced to skip meals or rely on food banks each month. That’s because they remain excluded from vital state nutrition programs like CalFresh and the California Food Assistance Program

The food assistance program offers support to some immigrants with legal status who are barred from CalFresh. The program was supposed to be expanded to include anyone 55 or older, regardless of immigration status later this year. However, that was delayed to October 2027 during last year's May Revision of the state budget. 

On top of that, Newsom tacked on a “trigger-on” clause in this year’s May revision requiring the Department of Finance to ensure sufficient funds are available before benefits can begin. That’s because of concerns about California’s $12 billion budget deficit. 

Jackie Mendelson, a policy advocate with Nourish California who co-leads the Food4All Campaign that pushed for this expansion, is worried about this.

“In Spring 2027, the Department of Finance within the administration will determine if there are enough funds in the general fund for the program expansion to go live,” she explained. “If there are, then the program will be ‘triggered on’ and continue as planned. What’s unclear is what happens if there are not enough funds.” 

Mendelson explained that the program was created in 1996 following welfare reform that saw immigrants lose access to food stamps. However, the program still excludes some based on their immigration status, including undocumented immigrants. 

“Our long-term goal is to remove immigration status as a barrier to accessing food assistance,” she said. 

The program currently serves roughly 55,000, according to Mendelson. The delayed expansion is expected to add somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 immigrants 55 or older who qualify based on income. 

“We are calling on the legislature to reject the ‘trigger on’ and we also are calling on them to reject any additional mechanism or additional language to the existing statute that could introduce delays of any other kind,” she added. 

Mendelson argued that California made a promise to immigrant communities that it is a “safe place regardless of where people are born.”

“Introducing additional cuts [is] putting the burden of the budget crisis on immigrant communities,” she added. “It breaks the trust that California has built with these communities. I think there will be a lot of trust that will need to be rebuilt if these cuts do go through in the final budget.” 

She warned that small nonprofits addressing food insecurity will largely be impacted by this as well as they face possible federal and state funding cuts. 

“If the ‘trigger-on’ were to be passed and in spring 2027 they decided to indefinitely pause this program, these organizations, especially with the cuts they're facing that are possible at the federal level, with less funding, would need to be feeding even more people,” she emphasized. 

Meals on Wheels 

Joy Cohan is the executive director of Meals on Wheels Yolo County. Last year, Yolo County was ranked as one of the most food-insecure counties in the state with roughly 29% of households facing food insecurity. A fifth of households with seniors in the county are also food insecure. 

That makes her job critical in addressing the growing senior population, which she described as a “silver tsunami.” 

“Particularly as that baby boomer population ages, their need for support from Meals on Wheels gets bigger and bigger,” she explained. “Trying to find a way to address this is super urgent because we have this growing tsunami of seniors who need food assistance.” 

When she learned about the delay to the food assistance program, Cohan said she was disappointed because they're already resource-constrained. 

“It just adds insult to injury and it's going to be very hard for us to take on any more people in this circumstance,” she said. 

Cohan is also concerned about losing the funding her organization receives from the Older Americans Act, which is currently at risk of being eliminated by the Trump Administration. 

“That would be a 15% hit to our annual budget, and that’s a budget we already ran this year and so far we’re projecting will run at a deficit next year,” she said. “We can only do so much of that before we would have to start removing seniors from the programs, which is, of course, the last thing we want to do.”

The nonprofit currently serves roughly 1,000 seniors in Yolo County. That’s up from 380 only three years ago. A large part of why they were able to do that was because of American Rescue Plan Funds they were able to secure during the pandemic. But those funds ran out last year. 

Since then, Cohan said they’ve been trying to diversify their revenue streams to backfill those missing dollars and sustain their growth. 

“We have been working on extending our private philanthropy to extend the gap,” she said. “We’ve been working on developing what we call reimbursement revenue relationships with other nonprofits, namely other senior nutrition programs that need meals to execute upon their own missions.”

Cohan said what her organization needs most right now are donations and more volunteers. 

“Volunteer time becomes increasingly more important to us in this fiscal environment,” she noted. “While we’ve had volunteers delivering most of our meals for at least a decade or more, the ability for volunteers to have impact in other ways to actually be working in our kitchens, for instance. I think that’s something we’re trying to develop more.” 

Advocates push back 

Masih Fouladi is the executive director for the California Immigrant Policy Center, a statewide advocacy organization pushing for the empowerment of immigrants. 

Fouladi said budget cuts to food security and health programs that help immigrants are “discriminatory,” noting that nearly a third of California workers are immigrants.

“For immigrants to then be targeted through the Medi-Cal cuts or this ‘trigger-on’ language related to the California Food Assistance Program is outrageous for us, especially at a time when the federal government is unfairly and viciously attacking American communities,” he said. 

On top of calling on the administration and legislature to reject the ‘trigger on’ language and cuts to vital programs, he called on them to find ways to create revenue to offset some of the losses. One way he suggested doing this is by cracking down on large corporations that are intentionally preventing employees from having access to health benefits through their employment. 

“Government is essentially subsidizing large corporations and their greed in not wanting to provide full-time employment for folks so they don't have to pay for healthcare,” he stressed. “As a result of that, we have the state paying for Medi-Cal for those individuals and driving up the cost.”

Fouladi is referring to the Affordable Care Act, which states that employers are not required to offer health coverage to part-time or seasonal workers. 

“We have until June 15 to advocate,” he said, referring to when the budget needs to be finalized. “We need impacted community members to bring that voice and their stories to Sacramento at this time more than ever.” 

Sacramento resources  

The Sacramento Department of Human Assistance helps residents in need by providing public benefits, employment assistance and supportive services. It conducts outreach to immigrants to educate them on the availability of assistance programs and helps them apply. 

“The department provides free interpretation for any customer whose primary language is not English,” staff stated in an email. “Immigrants without a legal status currently are not eligible to programs like these and would find it difficult to be eligible to the programs.” 

The department noted that legal immigrants and citizens can apply for assistance programs online, over the phone, in person, by mail or by fax. 

Department staff encouraged all immigrants and low-income individuals experiencing food insecurity to utilize local food banks to meet their food needs. The Sacramento Food Bank created this online tool to help people find food distribution sites near them.

“You’ve got to have your Girl Scout or Boy Scout skills to be able to pack these bags,” Maria Houlne, the Vice President of Supply Chain at the California Association of Food Banks, said. 

She and other food bank leaders gathered at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday to talk with lawmakers about funding cuts that threaten to reduce food for families in need. 

In particular, they’re advocating for CalFood — a state program that gives food banks money to buy local. 

Kevin Buffalino is a spokesperson for the Sacramento Food Bank. 

“We spent about 95% of our CalFood funding on produce,” Buffalino said. “So, not only is that healthy, culturally relevant product that we're able to distribute into our community, but it goes back to supporting local California farmers,”

CalFood has received about $60 million each year since 2022, but Newsom is proposing reducing that to its baseline funding of $8 million. 

“I would say that food banks today are facing kind of a perfect storm of issues,” added Becky Silva, a spokesperson with the California Association of Food Banks.

“Congress is also, as we speak, negotiating and considering cuts to the SNAP program or CalFresh, the biggest cuts that the program would ever face,” Silva said.

The federal government could soon require states like California to pay billions of dollars for the food assistance program, which is unprecedented. 

And the United States Department of Agriculture recently announced about a billion dollars in food assistance cuts nationwide. 

Newsom is also proposing a new diaper subsidy program in his budget. That’s despite criticism from food bank leaders and the Legislative Analyst’s Office who say it’ll be less effective than existing diaper bank programs. 

The new program would put about $7.4 million this year towards 3 months of free diapers for all babies born in California, regardless of household income. That amount would grow to $12.5 million next year.

But there’s no money for California’s established diaper banks, which help households with low incomes — even though those banks received $9 million last year.

Mark Lowry heads the Orange County Food Bank and diaper bank and said the system already reaches 83% of Californians. 

“We're suggesting to the governor and to the legislature that it's a priority to support and sustain what they've already invested in establishing, rather than abandon that and try to start something new and unproven,” he said. 

The Legislative Analyst’s Office said the new program would likely be less effective since it would distribute a smaller number of diapers and include families who don’t need assistance. 

The Newsom administration said it plans to eventually use the CalRx model to make inexpensive diapers available in the state. 

CalRx is a state project to provide low-cost medications. It currently distributes Naloxone — an overdose reversal drug — widely, but is over a year behind in its plan to make its own version of insulin available.