Shoulder to Shoulder: Building Capacity for State-Owned Benefits Delivery Systems

GetCalFresh was one of the country’s earliest and best success stories in proving human-centered design can help government better serve people at scale. Code for America and California worked together to launch GetCalFresh, an online application assistance service for CalFresh—the state’s name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—in 2014. In 2019, it was adopted statewide as the primary online application portal for CalFresh benefits. As of 2025, GetCalFresh helped 6.2 million people access more than $12.8 billion in food assistance. 

For the past few years, we’ve been working shoulder to shoulder to support the rollout of a permanent, multilingual, multi-benefit application and client portal, BenefitsCal.com. We spoke with Francesca Costa Méndez, Code for America’s Director of Food Assistance, and Brian Kaiser, Community Partnerships Bureau Chief at the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), about what this partnership has meant so far and where it’s going next.

Take us back to the beginning of GetCalFresh. Why was this project so momentous at the time?

Brian: The launch of GetCalFresh was a champagne moment—our branch chief at that moment was visibly excited when the contract was executed. It started as only seven counties, but it was a big deal to bring in a tech partner to run alongside our state systems. That was unprecedented. We’re a pretty conservative department. This project was really different and opened a lot of eyes in our department to what was possible in the tech space. We saw how we could really put clients at the center of this program, which was the largest anti-poverty program in the country. That was such a mindset shift and it’s hard to overstate how important that was. 

Francesca: GetCalFresh was starting when people were applying for benefits via fax machine. I think that’s why a project like this felt so monumental. It was really changing how people experienced applying for benefits, and beyond that, how they viewed government. 

What were some of the biggest milestones you remember over the course of the past decade running GetCalFresh?

Brian: The most monumental shift was the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) campaign, because the scale of the change was so incredible. Basically what happened is that in 2019, the state expanded CalFresh eligibility to people getting SSI, which was a massive policy shift. It meant a million people were now categorically eligible for CalFresh and had to be enrolled. We had to message out to them that the rules had changed to make them eligible, explain the process of applying, and make sure they had easy access to do that.

Francesca: When that happened, I was working as an outreach staff member at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, so I saw from the perspective of a community-based organization (CBO) just how massive that change was. I supported a lot of people in pre-screening for benefits and, before the policy change, it was gut wrenching to be the person telling folks living off of less than $1,000 per month that they couldn’t get extra money for food. When I got to tell these folks that the policy had shifted, and they could get food assistance now, it was such a win for everyone—I could finally tell people that government heard your stories and made a change. I can’t give enough credit to CDSS in that moment for really listening to people, holding focus groups, and advocating for this change, and implementing the policy change in such a people-centered way. 

Brian: I was working with disability advocates throughout this process, and hearing those stories was so touching. This policy really did change lives, and we don’t always get to see that at the state level where there’s so many layers between us and the people we serve. I had a front row seat, and it was a highlight of my career. 

How did adapting to that policy change prepare you for challenges you faced later on?

Francesca: Well, all that work helped prep us for what happened when COVID-19 hit. We didn’t have a chance to do focus groups or have lengthy meetings then. We just had to be ready to go. Looking back, the SSI change helped us get our systems ready to handle the tremendous scale we saw during the pandemic. The surge in applications hit like a tsunami. The typical disruptions people face individually all the time—like a job loss, a car accident, or any unexpected life event—were rolled up into one collective shock. Countless people lost their incomes overnight, upending their lives in a state where the cost of living had already pushed so many to the brink. We had done this research project during the SSI shift to find ways to make it easier to use GetCalFresh to apply for benefits, especially for older adults and folks with disabilities, since these factors are part of how people become eligible for SSI. The changes that we made used the idea of a “curb cut effect”—where you make things better for the people who have the hardest time, and in turn that makes it easier for everyone. When you improve things for people who have a cognitive impairment, it also helps someone applying with a crying baby on their lap. 

Brian: Had we not just finished the SSI campaign when COVID-19 hit, we would have struggled mightily to meet the demand of the pandemic. So much of what we learned and solved then paved the way for us to be able to respond to this shock to the system. It’s hard to even convey how enormous the demand for help was. The numbers went through the roof overnight. Counties were running at 50% vacancies, trying to work remotely, and dealing with that surge at the same time. Having a tech solution in place allowed us to stand up Pandemic-EBT and meet the moment. 

What were some things you learned from this partnership?

Brian: Clients and workers and everyone interacting with the system that is GetCalFresh do it differently. Implementing any kind of system that speaks to that many user groups is really difficult. Building for fringe cases and thinking of all the theoreticals only adds complexity. But in this partnership, I got to watch a lot of Code for America’s iterative process, and learned a lot about using feedback loops to make adjustments. A huge benefit to having this partnership is the kind of speed at which we could test out little fixes. I’d watch as the team would use data to see where people are dropping off in the application process, talk to counties about potential changes, and then be quick and scrappy in trying those out. That’s unbelievably valuable, and it’s going to be one of the hardest things to replace as we transition to a state-run system.

What will the partnership between CDSS and Code for America look like going forward?

Brian: It was a lot of work to shift from GetCalFresh to BenefitsCal. They’re not apples to apples—GetCalFresh was for one benefits program, and BenefitsCal will be a multi-program system—so keeping it simple has been a real challenge. The biggest thing this partnership will focus on moving forward is communicating this change to the people who will be affected. We’ll need to meet folks where they are, understanding that applicants will be facing even more challenges to get SNAP after the passage of H.R. 1. It’s a time when there’s fewer people in the outreach space than ever and we need them more urgently than before. We’re going to lean heavily on digital outreach, and that’s where Code for America comes in. Counties can’t field all these questions on their own, and they don’t all have the capacity to offer functionalities like live chat. Code for America is going to be really useful in helping us make sure people are confident in the changes that are coming. 

Francesca: I’m really excited we’re continuing to partner on this and have the chance to use digital resources to make sure everyone has the support they need to apply for CalFresh. We’re doing digital outreach and have a solid list of FAQs we’ve built over the years. We’re also redirecting people from GetCalFresh to BenefitsCal, and will continue to provide client support via live chat to make sure people are set up for success when they’re looking to apply for benefits. It’s the start of a new chapter with CDSS, and I’m really glad we get to be a part of it.

What lessons can other states take away from this work?

Brian: We always knew we wanted one system where clients could apply for benefits. So from the beginning, GetCalFresh was intended to help us bridge the gap to get there and do better by clients until we could have a full system that the state owns and runs. I think states should know that it’s okay to start small—in fact, I think it’s essential. We couldn’t do 58 counties or a multi-benefit system off the bat. You have to build your proof of concept and go from there.