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A Manchester restaurant is pitching in to help families affected by the SNAP benefits crisis caused by the federal government shutdown. MANCHESTER, CT — A Manchester restaurant is pitching in to help families affected by the SNAP benefits crisis caused by the federal government shutdown. In a social media post and on placards at its 648 Center St. location, Cheek's Chicken and Waffles proclaimed "No child should go hungry" and is thus offering free children's meals. Said owners Haseeb Ahmed and Amama Ramzon, "As we got to know about the SNAP benefits that will be ending Nov 1st, we decided to do a post about this to support our community in a difficult time." Ahmed said he and his wife decided to make it "not political" but "about the children," so the offer is for kids menu meals and the families must come to the restaurant. The post went crazy on social media. "We're so happy to see such an amazing response," he said. "We just wanted to help. There was no thought or intention of getting any type of donations but after getting hundreds of messages and comments. we decided to create a section on our ordering website for anyone who wants to support what we're doing." Enough donations have poured in to support the program through the weekend, Ahmed said. Those wishing to pre-purchase a meal can do so via: bit.ly/DONATE-KID-MEALS-CHEEKS "We are not a big chain but will do our best whatever we can as a small business according to our capacity but any donations towards this will definitely helps us to do more," Ahmed said. He added he expects a big crowd over the weekend. "We will do out best to help out" he said. See the menu and more on the restaurant here. The SNAP food programs is widespread. Gov. Ned Lamont this week announced that his administration is providing $3 million in emergency state funding to the nonprofit organization Connecticut Foodshare to help Connecticut residents who are expected to lose access to food stamp benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the shutdown of the federal government. The Trump administration, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced in a memo last week that it will not use its $6 billion contingency fund to support this program during the shutdown, nor will it reimburse states if they cover the costs themselves. That means, Lamont said, that effective Nov. 1, no new SNAP benefits will be distributed, impacting roughly 42 million low-income Americans, including 360,000 Connecticut residents. While Connecticut residents who have unused SNAP benefits from previous months on their EBT cards will still be able to access those carryover funds, no new benefits will be issued in November without federal action, he said. "Connecticut families should not go hungry because of Washington’s dysfunction," Lamont said. "While this $3 million in emergency funding will not fill the entire gap left by the federal government, it represents our state’s commitment to supporting our neighbors during this crisis. We are stepping up because Connecticut takes care of its own, and we will continue working to support our residents until this federal shutdown is resolved." Local food pantries are experiencing a high volume of need. In Connecticut, SNAP is administered by the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
