Nearly two months after 25,000 former SNAP recipients were to begin receiving state-sponsored $300 grocery gift cards, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration has delivered less than 6% of the pledged relief.

Through Thursday, only 1,425 cards worth a collective $427,500 had been distributed, a state Department of Social Services spokeswoman confirmed. The state didn’t provide full contact information for all eligible recipients to the nonprofits assisting with distribution until the program’s second month, she said.

Still, the administration pledged to intensify outreach immediately and get the remaining $7.1 million promised to 23,570 food-insecure residents as soon as possible.

“It does take time to stand up a new program and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted and abused,” Christine Stuart, the social services department spokeswoman, said about the delay in a written response to questions from the Connecticut Mirror.

“We expect to distribute as many [cards] as possible,” she said, adding “we will continue to evaluate options for improving the process.”

That includes sending postcards next week to remind eligible individuals who still haven’t received the $300 benefit. But social services officials also are asking anyone previously notified to reach out immediately to any of the nine nonprofit Community Action Agencies helping with distribution.

Lesser: ‘Bureaucracy has gotten in the way of helping people’

Still, the delay is far from what the administration envisioned.

Andrea Barton Reeves, Lamont’s social services commissioner, called the gift cards “real, immediate help” when distribution began on Aug. 4 to ease the pain of SNAP cutbacks ordered in July 2025 by President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress.

The governor and his fellow Democrats in the General Assembly’s majority used $500 million in state reserves last November and another $50 million in May to create a state “response fund” to mitigate federal cutbacks, chiefly in healthcare and nutrition programs.

“Connecticut will not stand by as the Trump administration uses hunger as a weapon against working families, veterans and our most vulnerable populations,” Lamont said.

The Lamont administration drew $8.5 million from the fund last June, designating $7.5 million to buy $300 gift cards for 25,000 former SNAP recipients and another $1 million to cover administrative costs.

The social services department notified those recipients via text that they could obtain these cards from any of the community action agencies, Stuart said. There was no formal application process.

But while the department initially provided agencies with some information about eligible recipients, a “more robust” list, including the contact information needed to easily confirm identities, wasn’t provided until “the beginning of September,” she said.

The department delayed that transfer to investigate whether sharing former SNAP recipients’ personal data would violate federal privacy rules, Stuart added.

But by failing to provide timely data, critics said, the department complicated what should have been a simple process.

“Unfortunately, bureaucracy has gotten in the way of helping people, and the need out there is real,” said Sen. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, co-chairman of the Human Services Committee. “We have the resources to take care of people in the state.”

Lamont could have delivered all pledged assistance by now had he followed Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s example, according to The Connecticut Project, a nonprofit social and economic advocacy group focused on making the state more affordable.

Starting in August, Pritzker sent $400 assistance payments to about 100,000 Illinois residents who had lost SNAP benefits. Officials added the funding to the electronic debit card the state uses to distribute nutrition and other cash benefits.

“The state’s ongoing failure to meaningfully respond to the SNAP crisis remains unacceptable,” said Meghan Holden, The Connecticut Project’s communications director. “The one-time grocery cards were always going to be a Band-Aid at best, and from the beginning, the state set them up to leave people behind … We’re talking to hungry people every day who are desperate for Connecticut to see them, listen to them, and help them. … For the lucky few who do get cards, they often last a week. Our state has to do better than this.”

Grocery gift cards weren’t enough for all in CT who lost SNAP

Others say Lamont’s assistance plan was too small from the start, aimed at just a subset of residents who’ve lost SNAP benefits since July 2025.

The governor stipulated that benefits would go to “able-bodied adults without dependents” who failed to meet more restrictive federal work requirements. The $300 cards were designed as a bridge to assist them until they could secure jobs.

Washington canceled work exemptions for the first time for certain categories of immigrants, people facing homelessness, older adults and children ages 14 and 15. It’s also squeezing states to scrutinize SNAP applicants and shrink program error rates.

Connecticut Voices for Children recently estimated that SNAP enrollment in Connecticut is down an unprecedented 62,770 people since July 2025, and the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the erosion during that period includes 18,900 kids.

The United Way of Connecticut, which runs the state’s 2-1-1 human services referral line, reported about 23,000 phone and web inquiries regarding food assistance in September, up 84% from the same month in 2025.

“That’s staggering,” said Lisa Tepper Bates, president and CEO of the Connecticut chapter, who added that hunger-related calls happen lately with “a higher level of urgency.”

Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said “We should have opened it up [gift cards] to people who lost SNAP, no matter what.”

“Every bit of help the state provides matters, however, the gift cards are woefully insufficient,” added Emily Byrne, executive director of Connecticut Voices. “No child should go to bed hungry, and families should not have to wait on pantry lines to feed their children.”

Connecticut still has $260 million in its federal response fund and could easily afford to help more than 25,000 people removed from SNAP assistance, anti-hunger advocates note. But Lamont anticipates Connecticut will need much of that funding next year to assist families losing federal tax credits that help pay for health insurance and to mitigate new federal cutbacks in Medicaid coverage.

A fiscal moderate running for a third term this fall, the governor also has balanced appeals to mitigate SNAP cuts with continuing to pay down the state’s hefty pension debt.

Connecticut still carries more than $30 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, one of the largest burdens, per capita, among all states. This problem, largely created prior to 2011, has been whittled down significantly, however, under Lamont’s tenure.

Using aggressive budget caps that force huge surpluses, the governor has used $11 billion since 2020 to shrink pension debt.

But Osten, Lesser and several anti-hunger groups want to explore creating an ongoing, state-funded nutrition benefit when the 2027 General Assembly session launches in January. It would help certain residents cut off from SNAP until they secure job training and employment or provide long-term assistance to those deemed unemployable.

Lamont has been wary to commit state funds to replace canceled federal aid on an ongoing basis.

But Osten said Connecticut faces a social and economic crisis if tens of thousands of residents are unable to eat regularly.

“Feeding people has been my No. 1 concern,” she said. “Hunger matters to people.”

Note: The Connecticut Project is a funder of The Connecticut Mirror.