The state released its first round of additional funding to Connecticut Foodshare, after lawmakers approved $3 million for the nonprofit earlier this year. The money is a more than three-fold jump from prior annual allocations and comes at a time of rising food insecurity across the state.
State money allocated to the CT Nutrition Assistance Program (CT-NAP) is used to purchase goods for food pantries across Connecticut. The program used to be funded at $850,000.
“This historic investment in making sure that people have what they need, an essential dignity, a basic human right to go and to be able to access food is not to be taken lightly,” Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said at a press conference held Tuesday at Connecticut Foodshare.
The influx comes as Feeding America’s latest report on food insecurity shows rates of hunger have continued to rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding boost also comes as deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are slated under the new Congressional spending and tax plan – and other potential changes on the federal level.
“There's a lot we don't know,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “But what we do know is that they're used to be tractor trailer trucks of fresh food coming up from Washington every week, and we're not getting that any longer,” Lamont said. “We know those cuts are real, and they're impacting the people every day.”
State Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw (D-Avon) is among bipartisan lawmakers who have pushed to increase that sum to CT-NAP. The hope was to reach $10 million annually, and the final amount was $3 million for FY26, and $6 million in FY27.
While grateful for the increase, Kavros DeGraw said that sum still falls short of the need in Connecticut.
“Especially in the times that we're living in. We know that food insecurity has risen, that people are more hungry than they were,” she said. “This is where the government has responsibility in order to plug in and help people.”
Kavros DeGraw said she will continue to push to fund the program for $10 million a year.
Connecticut lost millions when the Trump administration cut a local food purchasing assistance (LFPA) program that helped food banks buy locally-grown food from farmers. Under the bill, 15% of the funds for CT-NAP goes toward purchasing food from Connecticut farmers.
This year, federal cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) also hit Foodshare, to the tune of 35 truckloads of food.
Jason Jakubowski, who leads Connecticut Foodshare, said the new state funds help, but don’t make up for the losses – or the future uncertainty about federal safety net programs.
“But that's all part of the dialogue that I think we're all having over these next couple of years,” Jakubowski said. “As we hold our breath and see where things end up.”
