Amid threats to their funding, CAPs around New Hampshire remain determined to provide assistance
By Scott Merrill, Granite State News Collaborative
Sixty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” and launched his vision for a “Great Society,” the ideals of equal opportunity and human dignity can feel distant, especially amid moves right now to roll back the programs and initiatives enacted in the 1960s that were meant to uplift marginalized communities.
A Head Start classroom in Tamworth that’s run by the Tri-County Cap. (Courtesy Tri-County Cap)
Among programs in the crosshairs are the funding sources for over 1,000 Community Action Agencies across the country — including five in New Hampshire – that were created through the landmark Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. The agencies administer anti-poverty initiatives such as Head Start and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and distribute food to pantries and soup kitchens.
In his 2026 budget request, President Donald Trump is seeking to eliminate the $770 million Community Services Block Grant program, a key funding stream exclusively for Community Action Agencies. Though relatively modest, the grants are highly flexible.They’re used to fill service gaps, support clients who fall outside typical funding categories and leverage additional resources. Last year, New Hampshire’s share of that block grant funding totaled nearly $4 million, helping local Community Action Programs attract an additional $152 million from federal, state, local, and private sources. Agency officials warn that losing the block grants could seriously undermine their ability to secure matching funds.
Trump’s budget request would eliminate the $4 billion Low-Income Heating Assistance Program, and in March the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $500 million funding cut for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which supplies USDA food to Community Action Programs for distribution.
Amid the uncertainty, the agencies still quietly carry out President Johnson’s vision of providing food, housing, job training and financial literacy services to thousands in the Granite State and millions across the country, and CAP leaders in New Hampshire remain committed.
“What I really love about community action is that we are built to respond to specific community needs,” said Betsy Andrews Parker, CEO of the Dover-based Community Action Partnership of Strafford County. “We are truly the backbone of keeping people fed, housed, warm and in jobs, and most people don’t even realize it’s us doing that work.”
Every corner of the state
The Community Action Partnership of New Hampshire — a collaboration of the state’s five Community Action agencies — is celebrating its 60th anniversary in May. The agencies serve every corner of the state, from the North Country south to the Monadnock Region and the Seacoast, and provided services last year to 111,638 low-income individuals in New Hampshire. Last winter, the LIHEAP program alone provided fuel assistance to 28,235 low-income individuals — those who earn 60% or less of the state median income. They received an average benefit of $1,049.
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In Berlin, 74-year-old George Sanschagrin volunteers for the Tri-County Community Action Program, which runs the Senior Center of Coös County’s Senior Meals Program.
He does everything at the center, from fixing doors to delivering hot meals, often offering a warm hello to folks who might not see anyone else that day.
Sanschagrin, who retired from millwork at age 62, calls volunteering the best decision he ever made. “I started volunteering after retirement and I’ve been volunteering ever since,” he said. Much of his work involves serving and delivering food to North Country seniors.
Among the most essential yet under-recognized roles Community Action Programs play in New Hampshire is food distribution, says Betsy Andrews Parker, CEO of the Strafford County CAP.
“If you want to see something incredible, watch the tractor-trailers roll up to our agencies and start distributing thousands of pounds of food,” she said. “That food is what supplements nearly every food pantry and soup kitchen in the state.”
Much of that food comes through TEFAP — The Emergency Food Assistance Program — which supplies U.S. Department of Agriculture food to agencies such as Tri-County CAP. In March, the USDA paused half of TEFAP’s funding, $500 million.
The scale of food distribution is massive, said Michael Tabory, chief operating officer of the Concord-based Community Action Partnership of Belknap and Merrimack Counties. “Last year, we distributed over 4 million pounds of food. That’s more than $6 million worth, reaching over 225 organizations and about 25,000 households each month.”
Sanschagrin, born and raised in Berlin, worked for 32 years in the city’s once-thriving mills. His French-Canadian family was part of the town’s industrial fabric.
“Back in the day, you had to know someone to get a job at the mill,” he says. “It was a real community — French Canadians on one side of town, Italians and English on the other.”
That community spirit lives on in Sanschagrin. At the senior center, he sharpens knives, assembles furniture, unpacks food, installs bolts and serves garlic bread — his specialty — on pasta days. “I have all kinds of tools. I can do a lot of stuff,” he says. “Whatever needs to be done.”
Beth Daniels, CEO of Southwestern Community Services, the CAP based in Keene, says the impact of its food distribution goes well beyond groceries. “We’re also providing administrative infrastructure — completing the paperwork, organizing the distribution, making it possible for tiny volunteer-run pantries to exist,” she said. “It’s not just food. We’re supporting a whole system that delivers the food.”
Food programs are especially vital for seniors, Tabory said: “Meals on Wheels, for instance, is more than just food. It helps seniors stay in their homes longer by providing daily welfare checks and socialization.”
In Berlin, Sanschagrin’s dedication extends beyond the senior center. He also delivers meals to more than 100 seniors through the home-delivered meals program. For many, those visits are more than a delivery — they’re a lifeline.
“You don’t just knock and leave the meal,” Sanschagrin said. “You knock, talk to them a bit. Sometimes it’s the only person they’ll talk to all day.”
From shelter beds to food boxes and job training, New Hampshire's CAPs offer a wide range of services, often using volunteers, and tailor their work to meet local needs. While offerings vary slightly across the state’s five CAPs, core programs remain consistent nationwide. All told, New Hampshire’s CAPs operate more than 70 programs.
“We’re often the first point of contact when someone needs help,” said Andrews Parker.
“There’s fuel assistance, electric assistance, weatherization, Head Start, emergency food through TEFAP, WIC, senior housing, Meals on Wheels, housing stability services, and even public transit in some places,” said Jeanne Robillard, CEO of Tri-County CAP in Berlin. “No matter where you are in the U.S., there’s a CAP agency doing these things.”
Donnalee Lozeau, CEO of the Community Action Partnership of Hillsborough and Rockingham, was one among the first Head Start students in New Hampshire. She is shown here with her Head Start teacher at the White Wing School in Nashua in 1965. The Head Start program in New Hampshire is administered by CAPs around the state. (Courtesy Donnalee Lozeau)
CAP Hillsborough and Rockingham, based in Manchester, runs workforce development programs that help hundreds throughout southern New Hampshire, and it operates Head Start, Early Head Start and child care programs. CEO Donnallee Lozeau — who herself was part of an early Head Start class as a child in 1965 — said demand is high for the services.
Last year, she said, “we served a total of 432 children, and sadly we have a waitlist. Even if we were fully staffed and opened all the rooms, we would still have a waitlist.”
‘The glue that lets us do the work we do’
Statewide, CAPs serve one in every 13 New Hampshire residents; in the North Country, it’s one in six, Robillard said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Coös County has a 13.1% poverty rate, the highest in the state. The statewide average is 7.6%.
Beth Daniels, CEO of Keene-based CAP Southwestern Community Services, said her agency provides hundreds of affordable housing units and operates six shelters, with a seventh in winter. In Strafford County, the Community Action Partnership runs almost all homeless services, including a new shelter, rapid rehousing and outreach.
Daniels’ agency had revenue of $23 million, including money from Community Services Block Grant funds that were shared among all five CAPs statewide. “CSBG is the glue that lets us do the work we do,” she said.
George Sanschagrin is a volunteer for Tri-County Community Action Program in Berlin. Much of his work involves serving and delivering food to North Country seniors. (Photo by Scott Merrill)
CAP leaders say that, while people may know about programs like Head Start, they rarely understand those services fall under the Community Action umbrella, or how interconnected they are.
“We’re helping to keep fuel vendors’ accounts current, reassuring landlords their tenants’ pipes won’t freeze, making sure people have IDs so they can apply for housing,” said Andrews Parker. “None of that would happen without CAPs.”
“Not all the money gets handed directly out the door to clients,” said Michael Tabory, chief operating officer of CAP Belknap-Merrimack in Concord. “A lot of the money stimulates local economies. We hire local contractors for weatherization projects and support fuel providers — money goes back into communities.”
In total, the CAPS in New Hampshire employ a total of over 1,114 staff members and have over 5,000 volunteers.
CAPs receive a mix of federal, state and local funding, along with private donations, to carry out services. The federal block grants are a key source of funding, allowing them to leverage other funds, Robillard said.
The block-grant program “isn’t tied to a specific service area and that’s part of what makes it so powerful,” said Robillard. “Betsy [Andrews Parker] might use hers for a shelter start-up. I might use mine for our low-cost dental clinic. It’s tailored to what the community needs.”
Doris McDonald is another volunteer at the Tri-County CAP’s Berlin Senior Center. (Courtesy Tri-County CAP)
In 2024, New Hampshire Community Acting Programs received $3,965,243 in federal block grants, and a total of $152 million from a variety of sources — other federal funds, private industry, and state funding — all leveraged from CSBG dollars. The state provided CAPs with $6,043,729 last year, which helped fulfill state contracts for a variety of services, including child care and shelters.
As legislators continue their state budget work, it’s unclear how much money will go to the Community Action Programs over the next two years. While the overall N.H. Department of Health and Human Services budget would increase under Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s spending plan, 13 of the 28 sub-agencies within those departments would get less money than they got this fiscal year, according to the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute. Two of those agencies include child behavioral health and child development.
‘Stability and dignity’
As an example of the flexibility of the block grant funding, Parker pointed to an initiative being undertaken by the Strafford County CAP. It has been awarded money for a new bus to expand bus routes, but needs to make a 5% match. “If we don’t have CSBG dollars, we’ll need to find the match somewhere else,” she said. “Without those funds, we won’t be able to do a lot of the work we do, including training for child care workers, which the state depends on.”
In rural areas, philanthropic support is thin, Robillard said, which makes the block grants even more important. “There are fewer large businesses and wealthy donors to shoulder the burden,” she said. “You can only tap a small donor pool so many times.”
The Community Action executives warn that federal cuts in programs such as LIHEAP and the block grants would harm efforts to lift people out of poverty. Still, they remain hopeful.
“LIHEAP was zeroed out,” Lozeau said, “but I have confidence elected officials have seen the benefit of those dollars and how they help people.”
Adds Robillard: “We’ve been doing this for 60 years. We take a nonpartisan approach to advocacy, but we’re clear: These services are essential.“
Betty Gilcris, health and nutrition director at Tri-County CAP in Berlin remains optimistic about the future of Community Action Programs in New Hampshire. ‘We’ll weather the storm,’ she says. (Photo by Scott Merrill)
Betty Gilcris, health and nutrition director at at the Tri-County CAP in Berlin, also remains optimistic. “We’ll weather the storm,” she said, noting contingency plans are being developed for state-subsidized child care and other programs.
As funding questions loom, CAP leaders say their mission — connecting dollars to human need — has never been more vital.
“We’re helping people move toward stability with dignity,” Andrews Parker said.
Tabory, who worked in the corporate world earlier in his career, said his community action work has set an example for his children. “I look at them and they are sensitive to the needs of other people. They’re conscious of inequalities,” he said. “The fact that I've been able to instill in them the values of community action makes me feel they’re going to be good contributors to society.”
“When it comes right down to it, ” said Robillard, “Community Action Programs are about helping people and changing lives. Our goal is helping families become self-sufficient.”
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.