Connecticut will spend $3 million to partially supplement federal food aid benefits for residents during the government shutdown.
More than 360,000 CT residents rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). President Donald Trump has said he won’t supplement it with emergency funds during the lapse in federal funding.
On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) announced his administration would allocate $3 million to curb the impact.
“This is going to be able to provide about 3 million meals a week for folks,” Lamont said. “You get a grocery bag, you get to load it up with things you need, that can be milk, that could be yogurt, that could be chicken, that could be fresh produce.”
However, the money is nowhere near the $72 million the federal government usually doles out each month in Connecticut. And it won’t go to benefit cards like beneficiaries are used to.
The money will go to the nonprofit Connecticut Foodshare, which will stock local food pantries.
“For every meal that we provide here at this food bank, SNAP provides nine,” CT Foodshare President Jason Jakubowski said. “There is not enough food at this food bank, or every food bank in the country put together, to make up for the loss that we're going to see in SNAP.”
It’s coming out of the state’s Medicaid budget. According to Lamont, if the shutdown drags on, they’ll use money from the rainy day fund.
The $3 million currently allocated will stretch about two weeks.
The state measure has bipartisan support, despite the partisan politics that have caused the funding lapse.
House Republican leader Vincent Candelora (R- Branford) said his caucus is willing to work with Democrats to feed CT residents.
“We are broken at the federal level. There is an impasse that neither side of the aisle wants to break. People are being leveraged now, and people are being hurt. And I stand in support of the governor's first initiative, and I think it's just the beginning of a conversation.”
