CONNECTICUT — More than three-quarters of respondents in a food-pantry survey reported choosing between food and another important expense during the preceding year, according to research announced by Connecticut Foodshare and UConn.
The report was released October 5 and described by UConn October 7. Its underlying surveys were conducted March through July 2025 with 524 guests at 17 Connecticut food pantries. Those dates matter: the findings are not an October 2026 count of households experiencing hunger.
UConn says researchers used a stratified random approach to select pantries based on size and location, and offered the survey in English and Spanish. The work involved UConn’s Health Equity Lab for the People and Connecticut Foodshare.
Foodshare’s public summary lists housing, utilities and transportation as the leading spending tradeoffs. It reports that 76% of respondents had chosen between buying food and another important expense, while 65% visited a pantry at least a few times a month.
More than four in five respondents said assistance provided at least a quarter of their household groceries over the preceding three months; 43% said it supplied at least half. Foodshare reports children in 55% of surveyed households and working respondents at 34%.
The findings can help explain why pantry demand overlaps with housing and utility costs. They describe sampled pantry guests rather than the entire state population. The institutional summaries do not provide separate estimates for each Eastern Connecticut town.
UConn says the partnership aims to identify barriers to food access and improve guests’ experiences. Both partners publish summaries and link to the report. Its full PDF could not be retrieved in this review, so further methodological and town-level claims are withheld.