{"id":253746,"date":"2026-10-07T07:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=253746"},"modified":"2026-10-05T16:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:17:04","slug":"connecticut-foodshare-uconn-release-report-highlighting-food-pantry-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/10\/connecticut-foodshare-uconn-release-report-highlighting-food-pantry-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Foodshare, UConn Release Report Highlighting Food Pantry Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report<\/a> from Connecticut Foodshare and UConn’s Health Equity Lab for the People (HELP) provides a closer look at the experiences of Connecticut residents who access food pantries.<\/p>\n

Findings from the report, released Oct. 5, show many residents rely on food assistance regularly while facing difficult choices between food and other basic needs. The report, “Experiences of Neighbors Who Access Food Pantries,” was developed by Connecticut Foodshare<\/a> in partnership with Kristen Cooksey Stowers<\/a>, principal investigator of UConn\u2019s HELP lab and assistant professor of allied health sciences, and her research team.<\/p>\n

The survey found that food pantry guests are navigating significant financial pressures. Seventy-six percent of food pantry guests reported having to choose between buying food and paying for another important expense such as housing, utilities, transportation, medical care, etc., in the last year. The top three spending tradeoffs included paying for housing (33%), utilities (32%), and transportation (27%) instead of paying for food.<\/p>\n

The pantries were selected using a stratified random sampling approach based on factors including pantry size and location, helping ensure that pantry guests from communities across the state were represented. The survey was offered in English and Spanish. Surveys were conducted between March and July 2025 with 524 food pantry guests at 17 food pantries across Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Cooksey Stowers and her team of researchers also found that 82% of food pantry guests said that at least a quarter of their household groceries came from a food assistance program in the last three months. Sixty-five (65%) said they go to the food pantry at least a few times a month and 26% said they have been visiting a food pantry for 6 months or less. The study also found that 43% of food pantry guests said that at least half of their household groceries came from a food assistance program in the last three months.<\/p>\n

In terms of the people Connecticut Foodshare serves at pantries, 55% of households surveyed have children in the home, 38% of food pantry guests were seniors (age 60+), 34% are working, 22% are retired, and 13% report they are disabled and unable to work. Twenty-one (21%) of food pantry guests said English is not their primary language. Findings from the survey will help inform Connecticut Foodshare’s efforts to address barriers to food access and improve the experience of neighbors at food pantries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis data further demonstrates that there is significant need among our neighbors across Connecticut as the cost of living rises,” says Jason Jakubowski ’99 (CLAS) ’01 MPA, President and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare. “Food pantry guests are relying on food assistance to provide a meaningful portion of their household groceries, and many are having to make difficult choices between putting food on the table and paying for other basic necessities. As the need continues, it is more important than ever that we listen to our neighbors, understand the challenges they are facing and work together to ensure everyone has access to the nutritious food they need to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecticut Foodshare is a food bank that serves Connecticut residents and a partner food bank of Feeding America\u2019s nationwide network.<\/p>\n

In Connecticut, more than 560,000 people, or roughly 1 in 7 residents, are food insecure<\/a>, according to estimates from Feeding America. That includes more than 137,000 children, roughly 1 in 5. Connecticut Foodshare distributes food to more than 450 agency partners – food pantries, community kitchens, shelters – and more than 100 mobile food pantry locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report represents one deliverable from an amazing research partnership between UConn and Connecticut Foodshare focused on putting data about food pantry guests\u2019 experiences with food and nutrition security plus culturally preferred foods to action,\u201d says Cooksey Stowers. \u201cOur findings from this ethnically, linguistically, and geographically diverse sample of pantry guests from 17 randomly selected sites point to important disparities in nutrition security and housing security by age, race, and educational attainment. Regarding areas of opportunity to promote food justice and health equity in Connecticut, these findings warrant muti-sector partnerships like ours to develop tailored approaches to serve pantry guests with housing instability, limited vehicle access, and those born outside of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HELP\u2019s mission is to inform and evaluate Policy, Systems, and Environmental Strategies to advance food justice and health equity. Cooksey Stowers\u2019 lab focuses on structural solutions that will improve food access, diet quality, food insecurity, and nutrition security. To advance this work, HELP leverages Community Based Participatory (CBPR), Citizen Science, and Mixed Methods approaches.<\/em><\/p>\n

The report can be accessed at www.ctfoodshare.org\/report-experiences-of-neighbors-who-access-food-pantries<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

76% of food pantry guests reported having to choose between buying food and another expense such as housing, utilities, or medical care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":212537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2296,2224,1715,2460,2269,259,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2444],"class_list":["post-253746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allied-health-sciences","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-faculty","category-inchip","category-rudd-center","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-14 09:27:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253746"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253832,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253746\/revisions\/253832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/212537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253746"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=253746"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=253746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}