Rebranded market in PCV to accept EBT again soon

Author

Carly Heltzel
March 06, 2026

Good morning. It’s Friday, and I’m reading about a state park that’s viral flower field was destroyed overnight. Onto the five Cal Poly, SLO and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Hilltop market, the grocery store in Poly Canyon Village, might accept EBT as soon as the start of spring quarter. Before the rebranding this year, the previous market at that location accepted EBT, allowing many qualifying students to use state funds to purchase groceries. The federal agency in charge of approving EBT use for stores has delayed the process multiple times. One manger said Hilltop is doing “everything we possibly can” to get it done.

2.

SLO Ranch Market is temporarily banned from selling alcohol after an employe was caught selling to a minor in a sting operation. After review, their alcohol license was suspended at the end of February and it lasts until March 12. Once the suspension expires, it’ll go back to normal, but any further violations could cause larger issues. 

3.

College Corps pays students for their community volunteer work. The competitive program was intended to be a pilot, but gained so much traction the state is looking to permanently fund it. Students, who can be undocumented, apply to the program and receive up to $10,000 per year to compensate them for 15 hours of community service per week. Undocumented students say its one of the few ways to pay for college without having a social security number. But only 30% of applicants get into the program.

4.

Like the rest of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a beachfront mobile home park was destroyed in a devastating fire last year in Los Angeles. But it was one of the only affordable places to live in the area and it was “like paradise,” one resident said. Rather than rebuild, the owners of the mobile home park are quietly putting it on the market for any developer to purchase. Residents, who owned their homes but not the land, can’t do anything about it.

5.

A Cal Poly start-up uses seaweed to create a sustainable and natural based coating for food packaging that prevents liquids and grease from seeping through paper products. Currently, most packaging includes plastic coating, but when one founder saw product developers in Southeast Asia use kelp for packaging, she thought to use the toxic, rotting and smelly Caribbean seaweed called sargassum to turn it into something good.