FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2026
Contact: Meghan Holden, The Connecticut Project Action Fund, meghanholden@ctproject.org
NEW HAVEN – Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney today announced the addition of $50 million to the state’s existing federal emergency response fund to help address the SNAP benefit cliff. Following federal budget cuts and SNAP eligibility changes created by H.R. 1, more than 32,000 Connecticut residents have lost food access through SNAP, at a higher rate than the national average.
The following is a reaction from Melvin Medina, vice president of advocacy and external affairs of The Connecticut Project Action Fund:
“Tens of thousands of working class Connecticut residents have lost food access because of federal cruelty and our state’s slow, inadequate, and out of touch response to date. Today’s announcement is a welcome first step toward using our state’s significant resources to help people weather the storm of SNAP changes. We are grateful to the legislature for recognizing that we are in a SNAP crisis, and we encourage Governor Lamont to immediately allocate this money to go into people’s pockets.
Make no mistake: Connecticut cannot food bank its way out of this. Working class people need swift cash assistance to put food on the table, now.”
Today’s announcement comes after nearly 200 Connecticut residents rallied at the Capitol last week, calling for the Governor and legislature to fund a state-run transitional SNAP benefit. Residents marched to the Governor’s office to ask him to fund SNAP, delivering more than 3,200 symbolic empty paper plates to the Governor’s office, with each plate representing ten residents who have lost SNAP.