Meals support teams search metropolis cash to plug Trump gaps

Staff reporters

Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch, staff photographer

Food assistance organizations in New Haven are looking for almost a million dollars in city funds next year for the services that have been threatened by the expenses of expenses of President Donald Trump.

The leaders and defenders representing the food and soup kitchens of the city made the application during a budget workshop of the Alders Board on Wednesday night at the City Council. Organizations have begun to experience the consequences of reductions in federal food assistance spending.

“There is a perception that the community will take care of itself when it comes to food assistance, and that is not reality,” said Steve Werlin, executive director of the center of the night of the center of the night, to The News.

The food kitchen recently received less food than the Normal of the Connecticut Foodshare, which depends in part in the federal money, Werlin said. He hopes that the desktop food reserve decreases “at some point in the coming months” without a new source of financing.

Alycia Santilli, co -president of the coordinated food assistance network, or CFAN, the coalition that made the proposal, told the Finance Committee that 27 percent of New Haven residents currently face food insecurity, compared to 18 percent throughout the state. He added that almost two fifths of Elm City residents reported having received groceries or food suppliers foods.

The members of the coalition developed their “legislative agenda”, with a total of $ 993,000, before the 2024 elections, Werlin said. They presented it to the officials of the community services of New Haven in the winter while Mayor Justin Elicker was preparing his budget proposal.

Elicker announced his budget proposal of $ 703.7 million for fiscal year 2025-26 at the end of February, saying that he adopted an “status quo” approach in the midst of the unpredictability of the financing of the Trump administration for local programs. The proposal did not include the expense proposed by CFAN.

Werlin and Santilli said they expected the Alders to sympathize with their requests following the trump administration cuts. They emphasized that the city has generally not provided regular funds for food assistance.

“I know that many Alders really care about this problem,” said Santilli, “and they were probably not fully aware that the city really doesn’t spend money in this way.”

Elicker said Thursday in a statement provided by its spokesman who has proposed to direct almost $ 150,000 in the money of the federal block development subsidy to food assistance organizations, including $ 35,000 for desk.

He also said that the city planned to assign around $ 890,000 of two federal subsidies to Haven’s Harvest, a non -profit organization focused on reducing food waste, but that subsidies are now frozen.

“The Trump administration cuts to food banks and food programs are devastating,” Elicker said in the statement. “We would always like to do more, but we cannot compensate for the difference with the federal government.”

Around a dozen food assistance defenders attended the Aldermanic meeting on Wednesday. Four of them testified directly to the Alders, and some had signs that said: “Food is a human right” or “hungry for change!”

Alder Anna Festa of East Rock’s Ward 10 said that the Alders face a difficult equilibrium act while refining the budget proposed by the mayor.

“There will be some very difficult decisions, because if we contribute to each small thing, each non -profit organization that does not receive help, that reduces the budget, which means higher taxes for residents, which means that for some of those people, they will now have to decide whether they need to go to the food pantry or not,” said Festa.

New Haven has more than 50 food pantries and soup kitchens, Santilli told the Alders.