Latest changes and updates to the California Food Stamp Guide!

We've received great feedback from advocates using the new California Food Stamp Guide, and in response we have made some modest changes to make it even easier for folks to find the information they are looking for.

Several individual sections have been moved to more logical categories. For example, the "income" and "resources" sections have been consolidated into one tab, the information on both "underissuances" and overissuances" are now listed under the same tab, and all the sections related to fraud claims have been moved to a new, consolidated collection. The link to the Site Map has been moved to the top of the right-side menu, and you'll notice that the arrangement of the various top-level sections in the Site Map have been reorganized, to mirror their order in the gray tabs, above.

And in response to a chorus of requests, all the sections of the Guide are now numbered. It will take a while for Google to re-index all the pages here, but within a few weeks you should see the newly assigned section numbers showing up when you search the Guide here or from other search engines.

Over time, you will likely notice changes in the content of some pages, as the editors periodically change or update pages, as new references are added (such as the new ACL 08-22 regarding transitional food stamps, added this last week), refinements are added to the search functions, and so on.

Among other features in the Guide, be sure to check out the following:

  • Stay current with a new page highlighting recent federal and California policy changes in the Food Stamp Program. (Hey, did you know that the name "food stamps" is being dropped for a new program name? Read on.)
  • Loads of new and updated special pages, including a list of food stamp policy references and articles you'll find cited elsewhere in the Guide; updated tables and explanations about deductions, allotment levels, gross and net income and more, plus special pages listing food stamp statutes, regulations and agency policy memos. Need to find a federal food stamp regulation or key California All County Letters? Just check out these and other special sections in the right-side menu.
  • All federal regulations, federal register, most policy memos and pretty much all court case citations are now linked, either to a public website or to Westlaw. (You can thank us later.)
  • A comprehensive Site Map, essentially a "table of contents" that orients you to the whole enchilada. This is where to go if you are wondering what is where and its relationship to the other sections. And you can always find a link to the Site Map on every page, at the top of the right-side menu.
  • Since we're talking "navigation," those 12 gray buttons at the top are always available to you, no matter what page you are viewing. Need to quickly find the subsections under a general topic, say, about "who is eligible"? How easy is that?
  • You want "search"? We got search. Google custom search has been integrated into the Guide. If you know how to search using Google, you know how to search the Guide.

And in case you're wondering, here are those who deserve your thanks for giving life to this latest version of the Guide.