Snapshots Of A City ​“Hungry For Change”

Lines outside the food pantry six hours early. 

Food bank delivery trucks 7,000 pounds lighter than usual. 

Bare shelves. Empty stockrooms. Cans in the kitchen cupboard, but no produce or protein in the fridge.

Those scenes are unfolding in New Haven’s food pantries and family kitchens as the Trump administration’s food funding cuts collide with growing local hunger.

Two dozen food access advocates spoke of those experiences and others in testimony to the Board of Alders Finance Committee at the final public hearing about the upcoming city budget on Wednesday evening.

Members and allies of the Coordinated Food Access Network (CFAN), a local network of food providers and advocates, filled the Aldermanic Chamber alongside 75 other members of the public. People came from all over the city — at times sitting on the floor or holding up signs in the back — to call for more funding for schools, libraries, public transit, and more.

Food insecurity — which affects about one-fifth of New Haven households — was one of the two issues brought up the most Wednesday, along with calls for alternatives to teacher layoffs. 

In particular, CFAN is proposing that the city allocate $993,000 from the general fund budget toward a variety of local food aid initiatives, including direct aid to pantries and food rescue organizations. (Read more about their particular proposals here.)

Their requests come at a time when the federal government has canceled millions of dollars in funding for food aid across the country — cuts shepherded by the wealthiest man on the planet, Elon Musk.

Specifically, the Trump administration has eliminated $500 million in funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a bedrock of food banks across the country. As of March 25, the state’s primary food bank, CT Foodshare, has lost 34 truckloads of food due to those TEFAP cuts. 

The food bank has also lost an $800,000 Local Food Purchase Assistance grant recently canceled under President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering cuts to SNAP assistance, which as of 2021 supported groceries for more than a quarter of New Haven households. 

In a statement, Mayor Justin Elicker called these cuts ​“devastating.” He wrote that the city is planning to funnel nearly $150,000 from the federal Community Block Development Grant Program toward CFAN’s food rescue initiatives. He also noted that the city is suing the federal government for freezing an EPA grant that would have supported expanding the food rescue organization Haven’s Harvest.

“We would always like to do more, but we can’t make up the difference from the federal government,” Elicker wrote. ​“However, we remain committed to continuing to partner with CFAN and our nonprofit organizations, and to doing what we can with the resources we have to support our most vulnerable residents.”

Still, advocates argued Wednesday that the city should allocate funding for food assistance initiatives directly from its general fund budget — not only because of hunger’s enduring presence in New Haven, but because municipal grants may be a more reliable source of funding than federal grants, given the Trump administration’s intention of severe funding slashes.

As testifier after testifier made the case for city aid to food access programs, they offered glimpses into how Trump’s funding cuts have already begun to affect local food pantries and the families who depend on them.

“Right now, we’re seeing unprecedentedly low return from Connecticut Foodshare,” said Lorrice Grant, director of the local food pantry Loaves and Fishes. ​“Five weeks in a row, I got 3,000 pounds of food when I normally get 10,000 pounds of food. My storeroom was empty. And I’m not sure how we’re going to meet the need.”

Grant described the last half hour of the pantry’s Saturday hours, when food — especially produce — starts to run thin. ​“My heart breaks for the families that are coming in the door looking for hope,” she said, ​“and they’re seeing just a few cans left, or maybe one or two pieces of meat left, or one type of vegetable.”

“Our pantries are serving at high capacity, and we have had times when our shelves are empty,” echoed Jamilah Rasheed, who runs the New Haven Inner City (NICE) Center. ​“Things that we used to be able to get from Connecticut Foodshare we have to pay for now.”

Claudette Kidd, a client engagement specialist at Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK), described coming to work in the morning on Wednesdays, when DESK operates a pantry: ​“I will drive by around 7:45 in the morning, and people will be in line, waiting outside, even though the pantry does not start until 1:30 p.m.”

Kimberly Hart, the co-founder of New Haven’s chapter of Witnesses to Hunger, spoke about her own reliance on food pantries, despite receiving SNAP benefits that are theoretically intended to fund her monthly groceries. SNAP isn’t enough to pay for the most nutritious — and expensive — food options, like fresh produce and protein.

“My definition of food insecurity is not that my cupboards are bare, my fridge is empty,” said Hart. ​“My definition of food insecurity is not having enough healthy foods to feed me and my son.”

She pointed out, echoing many testifiers both before and after her, that food is a basic need — that it’s critical for health. ​“I live in Dwight-Edgewood. My life expectancy is way lower than people who live in Westville or over [Prospect] Hill.”

Now that food pantries are short on those more expensive, nutrient-rich food options, so are Hart’s cupboards and fridge. 

“When I go to a food pantry and they say, We don’t have it. We just have cans, here you go…” Hart said, her voice breaking. ​“I need actual food that will sustain me.”