“Government likes to give to government,” said Michael Dimock, president of the nonprofit Roots of Change, which co-sponsored and lobbied for AB 1321. The bill was the response to the missed opportunity, and Dimock and others hope it will improve California’s chances to receive bigger grants from the USDA.

A few existing organizations in California did actually receive some funding from the USDA grants after applying on their own. Market Match received $3.7 million over two years to expand their programs across the state. Mandela Marketplace, a food equity focused nonprofit based in Oakland, received $422,000.

But the state’s food policy advocates thought the number, especially when California’s size, population, and existing farmers’ market network was taken into account, should have been larger. Hence, AB 1321.

With legislation approved, the next step is to obtain actual funding for the program, which needs to match any USDA dollars it receives, says Sarah Hanson of the Office of Farm to Fork. And with a fiscally conservative governor at the helm, that won’t be easy. The state’s legislature approved a budget request for $5 million for this purpose during the last budget cycle, but then the governor cut it at the last minute, according to Dimock.

In addition to allowing the state to apply for federal funds, the new bill is only one of a handful of efforts in recent years to codify healthy food for SNAP recipients into state law.

In 2013, South Carolina’s governor Nikki Haley’s administration petitioned the USDA for a waiver that would allow only healthy foods to be purchased with food stamps. Another Republican lawmaker proposed similar legislation in Wisconsin. Unlike the previous examples, the new California legislation provides a placeholder for funds to expand healthy food incentives at farmers’ markets and local markets but does not limit what CalFresh users choose to buy at supermarkets.

Julia Pon directs the National Nutrition Incentive Network at Wholesome Wave. She says the new legislation shows that healthy food programs are gaining traction on a state-by-state basis, and establishes California as a leader.

“Even if AB 1321 just creates a placeholder for future funding … hopefully, Wholesome Wave can take this legislation and its language as an example to share with other states where we work, to help those groups have success implementing similar things,” says Pon.

Rebecca DeLaRosa, director of legislative affairs at the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, another co-sponsor of AB 1321, also points to the symbolism inherent in the bill’s passage. It “symbolically recognizes that there is a model that works, one that emphasizes partnerships between local governments, farms, organizations, and foundations,” she says.

Still, unless the state legislature approves the funding next year, the legislation functions more as a pledge of good will than anything else. For that reason, AB 1321 isn’t a comprehensive solution to the problem of equitable healthy food access in California, but it is a starting point.

“The state is taking a more active role,” says DeLaRosa. And it’s a role which she says, “shows that California is committed to providing support for a healthy food system for all.”