With SNAP suspended, food pantries struggle to keep up

CT Mirror – Thursday, November 6, 2025
By Laura Tillman

In a scene that’s been playing out across Connecticut over the past week, Diana Colombo lined up at a mobile food pantry in East Hartford on Wednesday morning — a line double its typical length.

Colombo, who is recovering from back surgery, walks with a cane. When she made it to the front of the line, a companion helped her load potatoes, onions, and boxes of macaroni and cheese into a cart.

Normally, Colombo would use her SNAP benefits to buy groceries and supplement that with two pantry visits at the middle and end of each month. Because of the government shutdown, however, that resource is gone. She’s gotten creative, cooking up a pumpkin that Connecticut Foodshare distributed around Halloween, to make a puree for her grandchildren, who live with her. And she’s visiting food pantries three times a week.

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