With the country’s largest food assistance program set to lapse on Saturday, two local food pantries — Loaves & Fishes and the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) — are expecting to feed at least 150 more families than usual next week.
Those preliminary estimates were provided to the Independent on Tuesday by Lorrice Grant, executive director of Loaves & Fishes, and Steve Werlin, executive director of DESK.
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1 after the U.S. Congress failed to pass a budget bill on Sept. 30. The U.S. Senate rejected the House-passed stopgap solution, which would fund the government through Nov. 21, for the thirteenth time on Tuesday.
As a result of the shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, will not send out benefits to the 42 million people that rely on them at the start of November.
While SNAP maintains a reserve of an estimated $5 billion, the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA), which administers the benefits, said the funds were prescribed for sudden emergencies, not a government shutdown. In response, 25 states, including Connecticut, have sued the Trump administration, arguing that USDA has a legal obligation to maintain permanent funding for food stamps. In a press release sent Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro wrote that the USDA’s refusal to provide contingency funding is against the law.
So what does this all mean for New Haveners?
According to DataHaven, as of August 2025, 18,168 families in New Haven receive
SNAP benefits. The state Department of Social Services (DSS) estimates that 42,930 people participated in the program in 2024, which means that, come early November, 31 percent of the city’s population will lose access to critical benefits.
That’s an average monthly loss of $190 per household.
Grant said Loaves & Fishes served 412 families on Saturday, already a significant uptick from their usual demand. This Saturday, she’s expecting 75 additional families.
Of the 412 families served on Saturday, 125 had their food delivered. That’s because Loaves & Fishes saw a sharp drop in the number of families seeking help at the start of the Trump administration, which Grant attributed to growing anxiety around Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Over the last six weeks, volunteers have been delivering food to people unable to come to the Wooster Square pantry, due to mobility issues or the fear of being detained.
At DESK, which is located on State Street, Werlin expects the number of families needing assistance to climb each week. Normally, demand builds over the month as people use up their SNAP benefits, rising from around 110 families in the first week to between 160 and 180 in the last. With SNAP set to lapse, Werlin said they’re bracing for end-of-month numbers at the start of November, and then more than 200 families per week after that.
From Monday through Nov. 10, the Hamden’s Best Video Film & Cultural Center is hosting a clothing and food drive for Loaves & Fishes. It’s the first food drive that Best Video has ever hosted, according to Executive Director Raizine Bruton.
Bruton said she’s been “blown away” by the level of support already, with people donating tuna, formula, and children’s snacks. She estimates that on Monday and Tuesday alone, she received enough donations to fill half a car.
This is “the community coming together,” said Bruton. You can drop your donations in boxes at the front of Best Video, located at 1842 Whitney Ave.
Gov. Ned Lamont, meanwhile, announced on Monday that the state would provide $3 million in emergency funding to the state’s largest food bank, Connecticut Foodshare, spread evenly between the first two weeks of November. Separately, the food bank authorized an emergency expenditure of $1 million.
But given the level of need in Connecticut and New Haven, Werlin warned that local food pantries, already stretched thin by rising food prices and federal aid cuts, won’t be able to close the gap in funding for food benefits.
“There is no way that the emergency food system, built around community-level food pantries, could ever replace the $70 million gap that we’re going to see in the month of November,” he argued.
To contextualize the difference between state and federal food benefits: In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, Connecticut Foodshare spent $110 million, with about $95 million designated as either “donated food distributed” or “purchased food.” That’s compared to the estimated $894 million spent by the federal government annually on SNAP in Connecticut.
In addition to the difference in scale, local food pantries are also significantly less efficient than SNAP.
“The beauty of the SNAP program,” said Werlin, “is that it puts funds directly in the hands of those that need it, with very little overhead.” That’s because SNAP loads money directly onto a debit-like EBT card, which allows recipients to access the same food resources as anyone else.
As a result, when it comes to the state’s $3 million, Werlin expects a meaningful portion of those funds to be directed to administrative costs, storage, transportation, and internal staffing. Grassroots food pantries are an “emergency food system,” explained Werlin, built to be a “supplement to” SNAP, not its substitute.”
According to Grant, it’s also been more expensive to procure food since the Trump administration took office. For one thing, she said, after the administration cut The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by $500 million, Connecticut Foodshare had to reduce its supply of free foods to pantries by 36 truckloads. Food prices are also up, primarily due to supply chain issues and Trump’s tariffs.
That’s all “changed the way we reach out to partners to obtain food,” explained Grant. “We’re making the network a little bit wider,” by, for example, going to food distribution sites with surpluses, even if they’re hours away.
The Greater New Haven Coordinated Food Assistance Network (CFAN) has also met last week and this week to discuss ways pantries can brace for November.
One initiative, said Grant, relates to distributing information to people in need. On a call, CFAN shared ways people can access information about food pantries, including by texting “foodshare” to 85511 or calling 211.
Another initiative relates to strengthening purchasing power.
“When one of us finds a deal, we call each other, and we all purchase at the same time,” explained Grant. By buying in bulk, they can also sometimes negotiate lower costs. “We’re all in this together. We’re trying to make sure we cover the city.”
During an interview Tuesday on WNHH’s “Dateline New Haven” radio show, Mayor Justin Elicker said that while the city is cash-strapped, it could provide “coordination” and “operational support” to CFAN, as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also suggested using the city’s “relatively large megaphone” to amplify where and how people can access food.
If the federal government stays shut down for more than a week or two, Werlin expects demand for food pantries to increase significantly.
For many families, said Werlin, “SNAP is one piece of the puzzle.” Under normal circumstances, those households have other sources of income and rarely, if ever, turn to food pantries.
Without SNAP, that could change, adding even more demand to an already overstretched system.
“The degree to which our residents rely on these funds is under-appreciated,” said Werlin. “It’s incredibly serious and asinine for our federal government to believe that community-based organizations can fill the gap.”
If you’re searching for a food pantry, this list from 211 CT compiles 64 options in the Greater New Haven area.