Keith M. Phaneuf and Laura Tillman / CT Mirror

With thousands of Connecticut households losing food assistance as grocery-related inflation hit a three-year high, Gov. Ned Lamont’s critics recently urged him to intensify a modest response to a hunger crisis.

The Early Childhood Education Endowment, hailed last June as a vehicle to create thousands of new affordable child care program slots by the early 2030s, is projected to receive $30 million from the budget surplus after Connecticut’s fiscal year ends June 30 — less than a tenth of what lawmakers pledged last June.