CT Mirror34%
After losing SNAP benefits, some CT refugees are struggling to afford food 6%
By Laura Tillman30%
7/31/2026, 2:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 4 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Optimism Bias, and Anchoring Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 32.2% saturation with 457 hits. Analysis detected 576 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,419 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 20.3% and a BS Rank of 6% (21,487 of 22,831 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.10% of the article peer group.
Syrian natives Karam and Noor have spent long days this summer sitting in the respite of their small New Haven apartment, listening to the gentle buzz of the air conditioner and the hum of Karam’s dialysis machine.
Weakened by kidney failure, Karam is unable to work and is tethered 12 hours a day to the machine that cleans the toxins from his blood.
Noor, who does not speak English and has found it difficult to find work, has always taken pains to feed her husband and their children a healthy diet of fresh foods, often cooking dishes from their homeland.
That’s gotten harder to do since the family lost its food stamps in December due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as H.R. 1, which ended access to the program for refugees and asylum-seekers.
But salty food is dangerous for Karam and the shelf-stable food carried by pantries they’ve come to rely on the last eight months is often high in sodium.
“There’s been a 180 degree change” in the conditions of their daily lives since the family stopped receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, Noor said through a translator.
“Now we have to focus on the cost of everything and we can barely afford essentials.”
Karam and Noor are not the couples’ real names; they requested anonymity because they are in the process of applying for green cards and fear retribution in a time when the federal government has ramped up deportations of some groups, shut down some programs and ended funding for others that served immigrants.
In Connecticut, SNAP enrollment has decreased by about 35,000 since December, much of that tied to new federal work requirements, according to officials at the state Department of Social Services.
An estimated 1,745 refugees and asylum seekers are expected to lose SNAP in Connecticut, a DSS spokesperson said.
Connecticut has partially filled the gap for people who have lost SNAP, providing millions in assistance to food pantries, grants to the Department of Agriculture, and $300 grocery cards for people who have recently lost SNAP.
IRIS has also been able to provide a bridge of four months of supplemental assistance to families.
The new federal policy affecting refugee food assistance is a stark reversal from the previous era of resettlements, in which such newcomers were helped with every step of the process — from searching for employment to securing housing and public benefits — by resettlement groups and federal funding.
Today, groups like New Haven-based Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, are focused on helping families secure the means of supporting themselves on an accelerated timeline, as supports like SNAP vanish and they must get the needed skills to quickly join the labor force.
“Everyone’s timeline for becoming self-sufficient and dependent on their own resources is largely dependent on the skills and resources they came to the country with,” said Daniel Pflueger, deputy director of stabilization services at IRIS.
For people who arrive fluent in English, the route to finding stable employment is shorter, he said, while others may need to learn a new language or learn a trade.
In addition to the rental assistance IRIS provided in the first year, families also have also historically been supported by both SNAP and Temporary Family Assistance, a program that provides cash to families under 55% of the poverty line for up to 36 months.
“Now without SNAP, that changes the whole framework where immediately there are hundreds or well over a thousand dollars in some cases that people don’t have,” Pflueger said.
Karam and Noor came to Connecticut two years ago with the help of the International Organization for Migration.
They left Syria during the civil war and then lived in Jordan for a decade, before securing refugee status in the United States.
Though they are living in the U.S. legally, with humanitarian status, they also try to limit their time outside the apartment because they don’t want to risk coming into contact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who have swept up many residents of their adopted city over the past year.
Noor said she learned in November 2025 that the family of eight would no longer receive more than $1,000 a month for groceries through SNAP.
Though H.R. 1 ended the program for refugees beginning in December 2025, not all recipients lost the benefit at the same time, according to Pflueger.
“It’s only when a family would have, say, their next renewal, or there’s an updated family member or house address change, something that would require a DSS agent to to open up their case,” Pflueger said.
Much of the food Noor’s family eats comes from food pantries, like canned fruit, bags of beans and rice and limited fresh food, like cabbage, onions and potatoes.
A New Haven pantry run by IRIS sometimes offers Halal meats, but Noor said her family has mostly gone vegetarian since the cuts.
They eat smaller meals earlier in the day with less variety and have replaced dinner with a late-day snack to get them through the night.
With limited financial resources, IRIS says they are focused on preparing families to survive on their own.
“Is there an opportunity to get a second job?
Is there a 17-year-old in the family who can work in the summer or part time in the school year?
Is there anyone in the family who could really get to a better opportunity of getting employed if they got their English up to the next level?”
Pflueger said are some of the questions they ask families.
Noor and Karam’s six children are in school, ranging from young adults studying in college to her youngest who is three.
As the mother of teenagers, it can be especially challenging to stretch their food.
“When I cook a big meal, I expect leftovers the next day, but it’ll be completely gone from the fridge,” she said through a translator.
The family will also lose access to HUSKY, Connecticut’s Medicaid program, later this year.
But Karam, who is currently on the state plan, should still be covered under a federal program for people with life-threatening conditions.
Advocates say that for a family such as theirs, stress is coming from every angle.
“Immigration enforcement is happening on a weekly basis, and when new policies come out, it is coupled with food insecurity for the population that we serve, it’s taking a toll on them,” said Mohammed Daad Serweri, associate director of resettlement services at IRIS.
“It’s not only not having food — actual food on the table for the children to really have enough to eat— but it’s also the mental health and has really negatively impacted many of these parents.”
Families worry not only about how and where they will get enough food, but also whether it’s safe to visit a pantry because ICE could be present or how to schedule a job around pantry hours.
“A lot of folks are making choices of what not to pay,” Pfleuger said.
“So people are not paying their full rent, or people are skipping out on their utility bills so that they can buy food in the meantime.”
Many are hoping that they will be able to find a job to get back on track with those bills or that a green card application will go through, but currently “extraordinarily few” of those applications are being processed, according to Pflueger.
A new policy allows immigration officers to hold the use of public assistance programs like SNAP and housing vouchers against green card applicants.
As they are confined to eating the foods they are given at pantries, families also lose access to the ingredients that help them summon the flavors of home.
It’s now been eight months since Noor and Karam lost SNAP.
They have received some assistance for their school-age children for the summer months through the SUN Bucks program — $120 per child — which has allowed Noor to buy healthy foods, and sometimes get her kids’ favorite snacks.
Back in Syria, before he got sick, Karam was a farmer.
Though there were other struggles, having enough to eat was never among them.
But difficult as the situation may be, the family is still glad to be here.
“For my kids to be able to get an education at university level, I still see the benefits and I’m not really focusing on the drawbacks,” Noor said.
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