Connecticut’s first steps to mitigate the fast-approaching suspension of a federally funded food assistance program will be a $3 million emergency grant to nonprofit Connecticut Foodshare and an outreach campaign informing recipients of their nearest food pantry, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday.
The partial federal government shutdown forced by the inability of Congress to pass even a temporary spending measure will enter its second month on Saturday, the same day funding runs out for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.
But the governor and others acknowledged that the emergency step will not match the reach or efficiency of SNAP, which normally pays $72 million in monthly benefits through Electronic Benefit Transfer cards that can be used to purchase food at chain supermarkets and many corner stores and farmers’ markets.
SNAP serves about 360,000 people in Connecticut, about 10% of the state’s population. It largely serves the working poor and struggling retirees whose monthly incomes are no more than $2,609 for a single person and $5,359 for a household of four.
Connecticut is one of the earliest states to address the near-certain suspension of SNAP. Last week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared a state of emergency allowing unspecified actions to provide greater food aid in the absence of SNAP.
The steps announced Monday afternoon at Connecticut Foodshare’s office and warehouse complex in Wallingford came after hurried meetings with officials from the Lamont administration and the statewide nonprofit, which acts as a wholesale and retail distributor of free food to pantries and individuals.
Lamont praised his commissioner of social services, Andrea Barton Reeves, and the Foodshare chief executive, Jason Jakubowski, for quickly assembling a plan in the face of uncertainty from Washington as to whether the Trump administration would use available contingency funds to keep SNAP going.
“They were going to replenish the SNAP benefits, and they weren’t going to replenish it. Turn the card on, turn it off. It is, let’s say erratic, to put it mildly,” Lamont said. “We wanted to pull the trigger and make sure we can take care of people in time for the cards going off.”
Lamont said the state will monitor whether further spending is necessary.
“We’re going to try this out for a couple of weeks,” Lamont said. “We’re going to see what the need is going forward. You know, hopefully they can solve this impasse down in Washington. I think it’s a long overdue, but if not, I think we’ll be here to help out people as best we can.”
The state is unable to simply put more money on the electronic benefits cards already in the hands of SNAP recipients. The state screens for eligibility, but a federal vendor actually uses the state data to reload the cards, Barton Reeves said.
“As a state, we don’t have any access to those particular funds and the ways in which those cards are loaded. We simply determine whether a person is eligible for the SNAP benefit or not,” she said.
Jakubowski said the $3 million would be used to purchase food that would increase the supplies already distributed through a network of food pantries and the 110 mobile distribution sites that are visited once every two weeks. But, he acknowledged, it would not come close to offsetting the loss of SNAP.
“SNAP is the first line of defense against hunger in the state of Connecticut and in the United States,” he said. “For every meal that we provide here at this food bank, SNAP provides nine. 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.”
Jakubowski also said the suspension of SNAP also would be a blow to supermarkets that operate on thin margins.
“There’s 2,500 retail outlets in the state of Connecticut that accept SNAP dollars. It’s anywhere from 5 to 15% of their business. This is going to hurt the economy just as much as it’s going to hurt working families across the state,” he said.
Jakubowski said the SNAP issue exacerbates what already was a difficult time for Foodshare and the pantries it supplies. The Trump administration previously canceled agricultural programs that had supplied fresh produce.
From October of last year, the nonprofit has received 850,000 fewer pounds of food from the federal government while servicing 23% more households across the state, he said.
Lamont, Barton Reeves and Jakubowski downplayed the politics of the impasse in Washington. Others at the press conference did not.
“We ask our Congress and our federal government to step up and fix this problem,” Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said. “We are leading in a bipartisan way here in Connecticut, and I find it incredible that our congressmen are being paid while our federal workers who are doing public safety and health related critical infrastructure work in our country are not being paid and are also at risk of going hungry.”
Standing behind her was U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, who is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.
“Some of us have have deferred our salary during the shutdown,” DeLauro said, as she stepped to the microphone. “Not everyone, but some of us have.”
DeLauro said responsibility for the SNAP suspension is with Trump. Even in the absence of a federal budget or continuing resolution, there is a $5 billion contingency fund set aside for SNAP, which the Trump administration refuses to use.
“I promise you, there is money to fund this program,” DeLauro said.
Youngkin, the Virginia governor, blamed Democrats in Congress in his emergency declaration announcement.
Democrats have declined to agree to a continuing resolution keeping the government open without an extension of tax credits whose expiration at year’s end will cause dramatic increases in the cost of buying health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, who is the House Republican leader, issued a statement earlier criticizing Democratic leaders in the General Assembly who were trying to create a new contingency fund to deal with federal cutbacks, rather than simply using the state’s ample budget reserves.
But Candelora attended the press conference and praised the governor’s first steps to offset the SNAP loss.
“No question we are broken at the federal level,” Candelora said. “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. We all know that $3 million is going to go away very quickly, and it’s also not a substitution for SNAP.”
Lamont, whose voice was hoarse from a heavy cold, left the press conference early. He has no public schedule on Tuesday.
To find food pantries, go to ctfoodshare.org.
