The headquarters for Connecticut’s largest food bank is getting a major upgrade. It comes amid a challenging time for anti-hunger programs and the people who rely on them.
CT Foodshare headquarters in Wallingford distributes around a million pounds of food per week.
The expansion will double their refrigerated and frozen storage capacity and increase dry food storage significantly. It’s expected to take around 18 months.
Jason Jakubowski, who leads the nonprofit, said his team has had to do more with less since the start of 2025. Fewer trucks of food are arriving from the federal government, and changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, mean more people need help from their local food pantries.
Changes to work requirements and narrower SNAP extensions have kicked 30,000 CT residents off the program. More than 300,000 people in the state rely on the program.
“This is, by many measures, the richest state in the country, and I say this all the time: we have a real juxtaposition here in Connecticut. We are the wealthiest state in the country, yet we have some of the poorest zip codes in the entire United States of America,” Jakubowski said.
The project will be funded by a mix of federal, state, and private dollars.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3), who is the ranking member of the powerful U.S. House Appropriations Committee, was among the officials at the site to celebrate the start of construction on Wednesday.
“There is a cutback in food and assistance programs today,” DeLauro said. “So we need to use the resources at the federal level, and I commit to you that I will do whatever I can to put food back on people's tables.”
DeLauro, with the rest of CT’s federal delegation, secured $2 million in federal funding for the project.
Feeding America CEO Denis McDonough was also at the groundbreaking. McDonough served as White House Chief of Staff during the Obama Administration and Veterans Affairs Secretary under President Joe Biden (D).
“Food insecurity here for children is 18.8%,” McDonough said. “Basically, one in five kids who go to school hungry, try to learn to read and write, try to play hungry. 41% of those food insecure kids don't qualify for SNAP, meaning their option for food is right here at Foodshare.”
The State of Connecticut has been backstopping federal cuts across several sectors with a $500 million fund.
$24 million is in the state budget to help CT Foodshare and other food banks buy food in Fiscal year 2027.
