California to deploy National Guard to support food banks, fast-track funding as Trump’s shutdown strips families of food benefits

Can’t be put to work abducting civilians if they’re busy handing out food.

Not true.

Normally the National Guard in each state is under state control, under command of the state governor.

What the federal Executive Branch can do is "federalize" it, which shifts it to being under federal control.

When Trump has been doing his political theater deployments to "fight crime", he's been federalizing National Guard units, and then sending them to cities.

California is using the California National Guard here to distribute food. That's under state control.

If a unit gets federalized, it passes to federal control. So Trump can yank them off whatever the state has them doing. Them doing state work doesn't prevent them from being federalized.

There are state militias that can only be under state control that are not subject to federalization, but they're much-less significant than the National Guard, and in that case, you wouldn't need to order them to do something else to prevent federalization, because they couldn't be federalized anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_(United_States)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force

In the United States, state defense forces (SDFs) are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government. State defense forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state.[1][2][3]

I didn't think that California actually had a state defense force, but apparently it does; there's an image right at the top of the the WP page of a California National Guard member being trained by a California state defense member.

English: U.S. Army Spc. Lisseth Puchaicela, right, human resources specialist with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, receives preliminary marksmanship instruction from California State Military Reserve (CSMR) Air Force Staff Sgt. Frankie De Guzman, rangemaster with the 146th Airlift Wing, at Long Beach Armory, California, May 19, 2019. The CSMR trains with and enhances the federal readiness of the California National Guard. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Ramelb)

Huh. Not very large, though, less than a thousand people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Guard

Role: Provide an adequately trained and organized State military reserve force under the exclusive control of the Governor

Size: 900+

Compare to the California National Guard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_National_Guard

Size: 24,000 (as of 2025)

Forget the culture wars. Exercising decency towards those of lower power is the best way to fight back.

I hope they wear body cameras. For their safety at the inevitable NG vs ICE clash at a food bank.

NCR for life.

The main issue is that the federal government is still stealing a ton of our money without providing anything in return. Until we have a federal tax strike any balkanization efforts will fail.

Lower down it says that the $80M is to keep food banks stocked. That money will go a lot farther with food banks negotiating bulk deals than a person trying to buy groceries on their own. Not sure which they’ll actually be doing. Still not a lot though.

deploying California’s National Guard and California Volunteers to strengthen food distribution and invest $80 million to keep food banks stocked.

I've volunteered often at food banks. The answer is absolutely yes.

State governments can’t just print money like the federal government can. It has to come from somewhere, and is not unlimited.