With federal food benefits scheduled to stop on Nov. 1, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that the state is providing $3 million on an emergency basis to partially fill the gap for some of the poorest people in the state.
About 10% of all Connecticut residents — more than 360,000 recipients — are expected to lose their food benefits Saturday as the federal government shutdown continues past 30 days.
To distribute the food, the state is providing the money to Foodshare, the regional food bank supplier that provides meals around the state year-round. The state legislature also recently tripled the amount of funding allocated to Foodshare after President Donald Trump’s administration stopped deliveries of fresh food that were equivalent to about 1 million meals, officials said.
“The United States has an abundance of food,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a New Haven Democrat who serves as the ranking member on the powerful House appropriations committee. “It is overly unconscionable. … They are trying to blame Democrats, but they control the government. … The money is there. I repeat. The money is there.”
While the federal SNAP program has a contingency fund of nearly $6 billion, the Trump administration announced that the contingency money would not be used as it is reserved for major emergencies like tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods.
State officials are providing an alternative to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps and now known as SNAP. The benefits are awarded on debit cards that are replenished monthly, and no new benefits will be added, officials said. Those with money remaining on their cards after Nov. 1 can still use the money until it runs out.
The food shutdown would have a direct impact on nearly 2,500 Connecticut grocery stores and retailers who accept electronic benefit transfer or EBT cards. They could lose an estimated 5 to 10% of their business as nearly 10% of all state residents currently receive food stamps, officials said. Benefits vary based on the size of a family, but the average monthly benefit per person is about $193 or around $50 per week, officials said. The total cost statewide in Connecticut is $72 million per month.
Nationally, 42 million people rely on SNAP, including 16 million children and 8 million senior citizens.
Gov. Ned Lamont set aside $3 million in state funds to help food stamp recipients whose benefits will be cut off on November 1. Here, Lamont plays the drums with members of Calling All Brothers as students at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School are welcomed back on the first day of school, on August 26, 2025 in Hartford. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Lamont said the money would initially come from the Medicaid budget and could later come from the rainy day fund for fiscal emergencies.
“Connecticut families should not go hungry because of Washington’s dysfunction,” Lamont said. “We are stepping up because Connecticut takes care of its own, and we will continue working to support our residents until this federal shutdown is resolved.”
Noting that $3 million is not enough, state officials asked the general public to contribute to their local food banks and volunteer at a pantry if possible.
State Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat, said that a large number of constituents in his city will be affected by the “Halloween surprise” as they struggle to obtain food for their families.
Social services commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said that the state could not simply reload the federal food benefit cards.
“Any state that does that will not be reimbursed,” Reeves told reporters in Wallingford. “It is strictly a federal program that is federally funded.”
Republican reaction
The final speaker at a press conference Monday at Foodshare headquarters in Wallingford was House Republican leader Vincent Candelora, a frequent critic of the Lamont administration who thanked Lamont for inviting him to the press conference to deliver a Republican perspective.
“No question — we are broken at the federal level,” Candelora told reporters. “There is an impasse that neither side of the aisle wants to break. People are being leveraged now, and people are being hurt. I stand in support of the governor’s first initiative. It’s not a substitution for SNAP. … Our caucus is certainly willing to work with this administration to figure out a way to get more funds into these programs.”
Earlier, Candelora said that Republicans believe that the state should use the rainy day fund that has been building up for years as the state generated budget surpluses from the booming stock market that is still breaking records on Wall Street.
“The state’s Rainy Day Fund isn’t a lockbox — it’s a crisis tool,” Candelora said. “And when people can’t feed their families because of the SNAP benefits crisis created in Washington, that qualifies as a crisis. Connecticut has $4.3 billion sitting in that fund. Our overtaxed residents are asking the obvious question: why aren’t we preparing to use it?”
House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford appeared at a bipartisan press conference in Wallingford to support $3 million in state funding for food stamp recipients. He is shown here earlier at the state Capitol in Hartford. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Some residents in all 169 cities and towns receive SNAP benefits, including wealthy communities like Greenwich, Westport, Avon, and Glastonbury. The highest usage is 34% of all residents in Hartford, according to state statistics. The other cities with the highest totals include Bridgeport, New Haven, New Britain, New London, Waterbury and Windham.
The total includes nearly 20% of all residents in East Hartford, nearly 10% in Bloomfield and East Windsor, and 5.5% in West Hartford. The numbers drop to 2.4% of residents in Simsbury, 2% in Greenwich, 1% in New Canaan, and less than 1% in Darien.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said earlier Monday at the state Capitol in Hartford that he could not predict how long the shutdown will last, noting that Trump was overseas and he sets the tone for any negotiations with Congress. He rejected the idea that some advocates fear that the Trump administration will cut off the EBT cards so that the states could not fill up the cards.
“Shutting down the cards would be the ultimate in cruel and stupid measures,” Blumenthal said when asked by The Courant. “Cruel because it deprives people for what they need to put food on the table and stupid because it prevents states like Connecticut from enabling their people from having enough to eat.”
The state is partnering with Foodshare as food stamp benefits, known as SNAP, are expected to stop on November 1. Here, volunteers box food for mobile pantries in September 2025. The organization provides food to at least one pantry in each of Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Nationwide, nearly 42 million low-income Americans rely on the program at an average of $188 per month.
Cutting off SNAP is highly unusual because the food program has remained in place for the past two decades during multiple government shutdowns, officials said.
On its website, the U.S. Department of Agriculture blamed Democrats for the problem.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),” the website stated. “Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
Democrats have repeatedly stated that the government does not provide comprehensive health care for undocumented immigrants, and they cannot be legally enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. Federal law, however, states that all patients must be treated at hospital emergency rooms if they arrive in need of emergency care.
“While Donald Trump focuses on demolishing the East Wing, millions of Americans are wondering how they will put food on the table,” said Kendall Witmer, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “Trump’s crusade to deny people the benefits they rely on is just salt in the wound. He’s already made the biggest cut to health care and food assistance in history, and now he’s refusing to disburse SNAP benefits or fix a looming health care crisis that will cause health care premiums to skyrocket by 114%.
Separate from the SNAP program, Connecticut is currently providing $200,000 per day for the federal Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, that helps 11,000 pregnant women, 11,000 newborns, and about 30,000 children in Connecticut. The program provides food aid that includes fresh vegetables and infant formula.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
