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Sunday, May 10, 2026
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California Is Spending $1,500 Per Person to DoorDash Gourmet Meals to Welfare Recipients

A woman named Lupita posted a TikTok showing off her free grocery delivery from the state of California.

"Yesterday, I was like, 'I need some lettuce,' but the lettuce was like five dollars," she said. "And look at this. Fresh lettuce! Thank you, God."

God didn't pay for it. California taxpayers did.

The lettuce came through CalAIM, Gov. Gavin Newsom's nearly $12 billion overhaul of Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid. Newsom called it a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to completely transform the Medicaid system." One thing it transformed was dinner.

Under a piece of CalAIM called Community Supports, the state pays private contractors to deliver "medically tailored meals" and grocery boxes to Medi-Cal recipients' front doors. The menu includes salmon, beef, organic produce, chicken and Amy's Kitchen burritos, prepared and delivered at public expense.

It costs taxpayers more than $1,500 per person for 24 weeks, on top of whatever food stamps the recipient already gets.

The produce kept coming. One Los Angeles chef working with the program said she got so much of it that she started putting sugar snap peas in cocktails.

To qualify, you need a Medi-Cal card, a provider's recommendation and a "chronic condition." The list of qualifying conditions includes diabetes. It also includes depression.

Get a note that says you're feeling down, and the state of California will put salmon on your doorstep.

When the 12 weeks run out, recipients can sign up again.

The contractors know a good deal when they see one. Andrew Barrier, a former executive at Project FoodBox, one of the biggest companies billing Medi-Cal for these meals, gave a 2024 presentation to a Los Angeles nonprofit on how to get people enrolled. "Step one is that chronic condition," he said. The companies, he added, are "not looking to push people away from the program, they're really looking for people to be on it."

He also told them what to say when someone worries about losing their food stamps. "This does not impact any of their other health benefits, CalFresh, food stamps. The answer is always no if someone asks you."

Keep the food stamps and add the salmon.

It's a big business. From 2022 to 2024, companies nationwide billed Medicaid nearly $100 million under code S9977, the billing code for these meals. Project FoodBox alone took in more than $67.8 million. A company called Hunger: Not Impossible changed its name to Bento Health and billed more than $7.7 million. Turns out hunger was very possible to make money from.

Bento's website says eligibility isn't tied to immigration status.

In 2024, California opened full Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants. The state has since frozen new enrollment, but everyone who already signed up keeps their coverage, and with it, access to the meal deliveries. Bento didn't respond when asked about it.

So an illegal immigrant enrolled in Medi-Cal can get a note for depression and have chef-made meals delivered to the door. The people paying for it are Californians who fight traffic to the grocery store and pay $5 for lettuce themselves.

The overlap is huge. About 90% of the people on CalFresh, California's food stamp program, are also on Medi-Cal. Nearly everyone already getting help with groceries can stack this program on top.

The state insists the program saves money, pointing to a 10.5% "net cost reduction" from fewer hospital visits. That's the state grading its own homework, on a program run by contractors who get paid more for every person they sign up.

Christopher Rufo, who exposed the program, lays out how this works. Contractors spring up to serve a government program, bill Medicaid for the work, then push to grow the program that pays them. They have every reason to keep it growing and none to end it.

Meanwhile, California is running a budget deficit, its cities are full of homeless camps, and working families keep moving out. Sacramento still found the money to bring salmon and organic produce to people who already get food stamps, including people who are in the country illegally.

Ask the contractors whether any of this will cost recipients their other benefits.

The answer is always no.

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