
Before nurses at the Norma Pfriem Breast Center in Trumbull began collecting donations of food and asking people to donate meals through local restaurants, as the coronavirus pandemic got underway, some cancer patients went weeks without a hot meal, staff said.
The number of cancer patients who need help with food, utilities and transportation to treatment has also increased throughout the state according to oncology centers for Starling Physicians and the network of cancer centers associated with Hartford HealthCare.
“Life is always complex for cancer patients,” said Ellen Dornelas, a psychologist with the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. “But due to the pandemic, I think it’s become much more complex for cancer patients. There are people who have lost jobs or run out of unemployment or people who are struggling with getting rides.”
Some of the financial strain is due to the increased healthcare costs that come with a cancer diagnosis, social workers said. For others, furloughs due to the pandemic or concerns that a spouse will bring the virus home to an immunocompromised family member have led to a loss of income.
“While I can’t say for certain the number of applications I’m completing has increased, I can say the severity of the situations have,” said Erin Stocking, social worker for Hartford HealthCare’s network of cancer care centers.
Hartford HealthCare is expanding efforts to help people connect with family and friends to organize food delivery and transportation through an online service provided by the Cancer Support Community, an international nonprofit that provides personalized support to cancer patients. The same organization will help patients find free Air B&B lodging if they have to travel for treatment, Dornelas said.
Many cancer patients treated at the Hospital of Central Connecticut have lost their entire income during the pandemic, Stocking said. “Not only does this impact their ability to maintain the household needs, but in some cases, also impacts their insurance coverage,” Stocking said. “I anticipate with the loss of the extra $600 unemployment benefit many were receiving, the need is going to continue to increase.”
The Starling Physicians Department of Oncology and Hematology in Wethersfield also has been seeing an increase in the number of cancer patients who need help with food, transportation and utilities, according to social worker Christie Fiori.
“The need for transportation has increased because many of the services have been suspended,” Fiori said. To help patients get to medical appointments, Fiori has been handing out gift cards to Uber and Lyft that were donated by the Linda Clemons Foundation, which also donated Stop and Shop gift cards.
Fiori has been helping three to four patients a week with food and other resources as the pandemic has progressed. “Some weeks it’s absolutely crazy,” Fiori said. “They already weren’t necessarily feeling well enough to go to the grocery store and all meal delivery services have stopped.”
She’s been handing out donated grocery-store gift cards so people can get groceries delivered without having to go to the store. Delivery service is more expensive than shopping in person, she said, but people undergoing treatment are concerned about being out in public.
“People aren’t comfortable going to the grocery store if their immune system is compromised,” Fiori said.
Patricia Ponioros and Allison Vallance, both nurses at the Norma Pfriem Breast Center at the Yale New Haven Health Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Center, began seeking food donations from neighbors and friends after seeing an uptick in mid-April in cancer patients who needed help.
At one point, Vallance said they were handing out bags of groceries that included fresh milk, eggs and juice to 20 patients a week. The effort expanded to include a drive to get donors to pay for meals at local restaurants that were distributed to local cancer patients.
“I had deliveries coming from Massachusetts and all over the state,” Vallance said.
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
The Trumbull effort has been scaled back of late, but they are still collecting gift cards in case the pandemic ramps up again. “Patients know to get in touch with us if they need anything,” Vallance said. “We have patient navigators who are there to help emotionally and financially. Our goal is to treat the whole patient, not just the cancer.”
Donations of gift cards to Stop & Shop, Uber, Lyft or Visa can be mailed to the Hematology and Oncology Department at Starling Physicians, attn.: Christie Fiori, 1260 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT, 06109. Donations are also welcome at the Hartford HealthCare oncology patient assistance fund or the Norma Pfriem Breast Center COVID Helping Hands Fund by calling Kate or Mari-Jo at 203-255-5300.
More COVID-19 Coverage

Connecticut To Get FEMA Funds for COVID Testing Sites
Connecticut will receive more than $2 million in federal emergency funding to pay for the operation of COVID-19 testing sites during a six-month period last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Monday. The roughly $2.15 million will come from FEMA’s public assistance grant program and will be used to reimburse state funds used to…
Keep reading
COVID Transmission Increases in CT
As of Friday afternoon, Connecticut’s test positivity rate was 13.71% and there were 323 residents hospitalized with the virus. On Thursday, the Department of Public Health reported that 158 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities qualified for the state’s “red alert” distinction for COVID-19, which is triggered when a community records at least 15 daily cases per…
Keep reading
Connecticut At High, Medium Risk of COVID Transmission
Connecticut’s COVID-19 test positivity rating was 10.35% on Thursday and all eight Connecticut counties were in the medium yellow or high orange categories on the CDC’s community spread map. Those community maps, created by the CDC in February, are supposed to tell people to take preventative steps such as masking and testing. Hartford, Middlesex and…
Keep reading
Advocates Make 11th Hour Pitch For Compassionate Release
Hartford, CT — Advocates seeking compassionate release from prison during public health emergencies like COVID rallied at the state Capitol hours before they saw their legislation die without action in either chamber. At the rally on Wednesday, protestors and advocates were demanding action from legislators to pass a bill that addresses COVID in prisons. The…
Keep reading
Legislating During COVID-19
The legislative session ends in three days now, that’s shorter than the amount of time someone should quarantine under CDC standards if they have COVID-19, so how are lawmakers coping? Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, started experiencing symptoms two weeks ago and tested positive for COVID-19. Luckily the session wasn’t scheduled until last Tuesday, but…
Keep reading
Study Shows Union Nursing Homes Had Lower Rates of COVID-19
A recent study published by Health Affairs found that unionized nursing homes had lower resident COVID-19 mortality rates. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing home residents have accounted for roughly one of every six COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Nursing homes have also been very dangerous places for workers, with more than…
Keep reading
Senator Murphy Tests Positive For COVID
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy announced on Twitter that he tested positive for COVID-19. “FYI after feeling mild symptoms overnight, I tested positive for COVID this morning. We’ve done the contact tracing and let people know. It’s a bummer, but I’m sure if I wasn’t fully vaccinated I would be feeling a lot worse. So remember…
Keep reading
COVID Cases Tick Back Up
Most of Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive orders, which were extended to April 15 by the legislature, have now expired just as Connecticut’s test positivity rate for COVID-19 is creeping back up and students at UConn are being asked to mask up again, starting today. According to the Department of Public Health, Connecticut recorded 3,939 positive…
Keep reading
House Green Lights Extension of COVID-19 Laws
The House gave final passage Wednesday to a package of four concepts that had been executive orders and are now law. Previously, the concepts were executive orders to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keep reading
Tong Tests Positive For COVID-19
Attorney General William Tong has tested positive for COVID-19. He is experiencing mild symptoms and quarantining at home.
Keep reading
Lieutenant Gov. Tests Positive For COVID-19, Days After Gov
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz tested positive for the COVID-19 virus during a routine rapid test over the weekend, her chief staff said in a Monday morning statement. Bysiewicz’s results follow Gov. Ned Lamont, who tested positive late last week. “I have tested positive for COVID-19,” Bysiewicz wrote on Twitter. “Thanks to the vaccine and booster…
Keep reading
Lamont Tests Positive for COVID-19
Gov. Ned Lamont tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday. The results from two rapid tests were positive and he’s awaiting the results of a PCR test, according to this staff. The 68-year-old governor received his second booster exactly a week ago, but has made it through the first two years of the pandemic without contracting the…
Keep reading
New Initiative Allows Same Day COVID Testing And Treatment
Hundreds of pharmacies and federally qualified community health centers across Connecticut are now offering COVID testing and treatments to patients at the same time and place. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, these test-to-treat sites provide antiviral medication to hundreds of locations across the U.S, who then distribute them to patients…
Keep reading
YNHH Top Doc Boosts 2nd Boosters
If you’re eligible to get a second Covid-19 booster shot, go get it. Especially if you’re over 50 and have an underlying medical condition like diabetes that puts you at “high risk” of contracting a severe case of COVID. Read more from the New Haven Independent.
Keep reading
Federal COVID Funds To Limit Tax Relief In An Election Year
Like all states, Connecticut accepted billions of dollars from the federal government for COVID-19 relief, but that money limits how much the state can now consider cutting taxes. It’s bubbling up as a point of contention as lawmakers race to adjust the two-year state budget, which is currently experiencing a record surplus. Connecticut is expected…
Keep readingMore Health Care News & Analysis
Medical Examining Board Fines Doctor $10,000
The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday fined an Oxford doctor $10,000 for fraudulently using another doctor’s name and Drug Enforcement Agency registration number to prescribe controlled substances to a family member.
Keep reading
Clinical Trials With Immunotherapy Drugs Are Source Of Hope And Challenges In Treating Aggressive Breast Cancer
Joshalyn Mills of Branford and Nancy Witz of Kensington had the best possible results after being treated in clinical trials with immunotherapy drugs for aggressive breast cancer: Their tumors were eliminated. But while there are dramatic successes with immunotherapy drugs, there are also many failures, and researchers are trying to find out why in hopes…
Keep reading
Coalition of Health Insurers Questions Viability of Connecticut Partnership Plan
Members of Connecticut’s Health Care Future, a coalition of health insurers, hospitals, and businesses, are questioning whether Connecticut lawmakers have done enough this year to protect teachers and municipal employees from increases in health insurance premiums. “Despite repeated bailouts from taxpayers, the Connecticut Partnership Plan continues to be a fiscal Titanic that demonstrates why government-controlled health…
Keep reading
AG’s Tackle Mental Health Parity
Attorneys General in Connecticut and Rhode Island threw their support Monday behind a coalition of mental health advocacy groups asking a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling giving insurance companies more flexibility to deny mental health claims.
Keep reading
Budget Green Lights Psychedelic Therapies
Buried in the budget Gov. Ned Lamont signed this week is a provision that would create a pilot program to allow Connecticut to be the first-in-the-nation to study the impact of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA on patients with depression and PTSD. The budget now creates a pilot program within the Department of Mental…
Keep reading
Officials Highlight Effort To Boost Mental Health Services For Kids
At a Hartford-based community provider Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont and a handful of his agency commissioners highlighted the expected impact of more than $100 million in recently passed funding aimed at increasing behavioral health services for Connecticut children. The governor appeared at The Village for Families and Children, a recipient of new state funding included…
Keep reading