Unexpected extra CalFresh deposit on EBT card this morning - what's going on?

same thing happened to me!! got an extra $220 and was like wtf?? not complaining tho lol

There was a statewide nutrition supplement approved for May 2025 due to increased food costs. The California legislature approved this one-time boost that's proportional to your regular benefit amount. It should have come with a notice, but sometimes those arrive after the deposit. You can spend it - it's legitimately yours and part of an official program, not an error.

It could also be retroactive benefits if you had a recertification delay or they found an error in your benefit calculation from previous months. I had this happen last year where they reviewed my case and found they'd been calculating my housing deduction incorrectly for 3 months and then suddenly deposited the difference. Did you have any issues or delays with your benefits recently?

If you're concerned, you should definitely call your county office to confirm what the extra deposit is for. They can check your case notes and tell you exactly what's happening. It sounds like either the supplement mentioned above or a benefit adjustment after recertification (especially if they updated your utility allowance). If you have trouble reaching someone at your county office, I'd recommend using Claimyr. It helped me get through to a real person at CalFresh when I had a similar question about unexpected benefits. They connect you directly to a worker instead of waiting on hold for hours. Their website is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/eZ19FHRETv8?si=_CXnXqNXbLl26WB8. I was actually able to speak with someone in under 10 minutes when I used it.

DONT CALL THEM! If they made a mistake, calling will just bring attention to it! Just spend it before they can take it back!!!

When did you do your last SAR7? Sometimes when you report a change on your semi-annual report, they don't process the adjustment until a month or two later and then you get retroactive benefits. That happened to me when I reported decreased income on my SAR7 but they didn't process it until after my report month had passed.

my cousin works for the county and she said theres some kinda emergency allotment thing happening this month bc of the increased food prices. she said its legit so we good!!

Update: I did end up calling the county office (took forever to get through). The worker confirmed it's the May 2025 Food Cost Adjustment Supplement that was approved statewide. She said all CalFresh households are getting approximately 50% of their monthly benefit as a one-time supplement. The notices are being mailed out this week, so we got the money before the explanation. Thanks everyone for your help!

Thanks for posting this update! I was actually wondering about the same thing when I saw an extra deposit on my card yesterday. It's really helpful to know it's the Food Cost Adjustment Supplement and that it's legitimate. I was hesitant to spend it without knowing for sure what it was for. Really appreciate you taking the time to call and confirm, and then sharing the info with everyone here. Now I can use that extra money for groceries without worrying about having to pay it back later!