Fairfield County’s Community Foundation creates emergency fund to battle food insecurity

[Excerpt from news coverage by Leanna Wells, 1/29/26]

Food insecurity is on the rise. To fight it, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation has launched an emergency food security fund.

Mendi Blue Paca, the president and CEO of the nonprofit, said the fund was created because of the federal policy changes they’ve seen in the past year. The emergency fund will give support to other organizations that help people, like food banks, churches, schools or even hospitals.

According to DataHaven, more than 11,000 families in Fairfield County stand to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits due to new federal policy changes.

“It enables them to do anything from staffing to sourcing food and frankly, anything that will allow them to get food in the hands of people who need it,” Paca said. [….]