‘I feel guilty eating a meal’: Low-income families prepare to lose access to billions in federal aid

CNN Annemarie King is eating only once a day and her husband Randall is picking up extra shifts at the drywall factory where he works They are among the nearly million Americans preparing for their food stamp benefits to run dry in November because of the ongoing regime shutdown The Kings who live in Cincinnati and have eight young children depend on the roughly in food stamps that they receive at the start of every month to stock their refrigerator with fresh fruits vegetables and meat But since the US Department of Agriculture stated in mid-October that it doesn t have the funding to provide next month s benefits during the executive shutdown Annemarie a stay-at-home mother has been buying more canned and boxed items and preparing less for dinner She s also going without food herself Her -year-old son has noticed she noted but she tells him not to worry and that she ate while he was at school I feel guilty eating a meal Annemarie noted I don t want to take food away from them As the shutdown nears the one-month mark it s not just furloughed federal workers feeling the financial strain Low-income households across the country will lose access to key social safety net programs in the coming days as billions of dollars in federal funding dries up Beginning November more than children and families could lose access to Head Start programs which provide early learning and child improvement tools according to the National Head Start Association For a few parents that means they might have to quit their jobs because they won t have child care anymore Others are worried they might not get heat subsidies from the Low Income Home Force Assistance Effort before the winter months On top of that roughly million Americans who receive strength insurance through the Affordable Care Act are preparing for what is likely to be a substantial increase in premiums next year In interviews with people in cities across the country the early implications of the stop in federal funding for low-income families are starting to come into focus Food banks and other charities are expecting higher demand as millions face increasingly desperate situations without the programs they rely on At the Kings household the loss of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Project or SNAP means that instead of serving chicken a fresh vegetable and either mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese Annemarie has been cooking chicken and canned green beans Chilis pastas and roasts are on the menu more often since they can last for a insufficient days Our family is suffering because neither side will compromise Annemarie noted of the stalemate on Capitol Hill It s no longer a Democrat thing it s no longer a Republican thing It s our lives The status of SNAP funding for November is in the present uncertain however A federal judge in Boston indicated Thursday that she will intervene in a high-stakes fight between Democratic-led states and the Trump administration over its US Department of Agriculture s decision to not tap into billions of dollars in exigency funds to provide benefits next month However the judge rules millions of Americans will not receive their food stamp benefits on time An estimated million people will be affected on November alone according to estimates from Code for America which works with all levels of authorities to improve access to food assistance and other safety net programs Food pantries around the country are preparing for a surge in demand next week if people don t receive their SNAP stipends But food bank directors have warned that they can provide only a fraction of the meals that are supplied by federal assistance And for various households the loss of more than one of these programs has a compounding effect In Hillsboro Ohio about an hour outside Cincinnati the closure of the local Head Start initiative means Lauren Lowe will likely have to quit her job as a restaurant server She and her husband were able to both work full time while their -year-old son Carter attended Head Start on weekdays He and other kids got meals and soundness care there And he loved his friends and teachers Lowe announced Since she s had to tell him that this will be his last week in the campaign Carter is broken-hearted right now He s crying every single morning because he wants to be in school with his friends Lowe stated Lowe is feeling uneasy too Quitting her job means less income for the household in addition to missing their food stamp benefits It s really scary because how do we make ends meet Lowe mentioned I either stay home and school my child or figure out how we re going to pay the bills to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table Lowe will also have to replace the two meals Carter was getting every day he was at Head Start On Monday mornings kids do come in hungrier than usual so we know they re really dependent on that breakfast lunch and snack we give them stated Julia Wise the executive director of the Highland County District Action Organization which runs the Hillsboro Head Start scheme Wise mentioned Head Start staff will be furloughed on Monday Other Head Start programs particularly those run by larger entities such as nonprofits school districts and local governments can limp along by drawing on district help or taking out lines of credit In the Kansas City area programs with grants expiring on November decided to take a financial peril by staying open reported Kasey Lawson the Head Start director for the Mid-America Regional Council The providers do not know if they will be reimbursed later when the new grant year is funded In Hillsboro teachers prepared homework packets that will take the kids through the end of November so they can keep studying even when the operation is closed Specific of that staff will likely get other jobs before the regime shutdown ends meaning whenever Head Start does get funding again it might not have enough educators to reopen all its classrooms Wise noted For those who can t find other work they re going on furlough they re not going to have money coming in so they could apply for SNAP benefits but now SNAP is not going to be available either Wise disclosed This is impacting us across the board she added In rural Oregon where the temperatures are already dipping below the freezing mark the suspension of funding for the Low Income Home Strength Assistance Operation or LIHEAP is putting lives at menace mentioned Sheri Gutierrez resource undertaking manager at Area Action Plan of East Central Oregon a nonprofit that provides a range of services for residents in need The billion project which helps nearly million people pay their utility bills is not in as immediate danger as SNAP and Head Start the aid is typically distributed to utility companies between mid-November and early December But barely a month into the season Locality Action in Oregon already has more than in grant payments that are on hold until the cabinet reopens Plenty of of its clients heat their homes with propane wood and heating oil and they don t enjoy the same continuous arrangement and shutoff protections available to numerous people who use electricity and natural gas to stay warm The delay has worried local residents various of whom are using old space heaters or their ovens which Gutierrez says aren t safe We hear the desperation when speaking to these clients on a daily basis People want reassurance that they will get assistance she stated LIHEAP is lifesaving Without heat they won t survive In Lakeville Minnesota Ronda Beck is also waiting for help from LIHEAP to cover the electric bill After speaking with her utility company at great length Beck was reported she could pay whatever she can until her grant is funded and she won t be disconnected But she s not sure how she ll scrape together a couple of bucks since she s not working Where do I get from She revealed It s a tough situation Beck figured she could survive on groceries she picks up from her local food pantries if she and her adult son stop receiving food stamps next month that is until she unveiled out on Tuesday that one of the groups is only providing two or three days of food instead two weeks worth Now she s terrified I don t want to go hungry revealed Beck who along with her son is looking for jobs in Lakeville Minnesota where they live I don t want to walk into a food pantry and have them say We re at our limit Just outside Washington DC Willissa Bullock worries about her food bank running out as it s dealing with a surge in demand from furloughed federal workers in the area When the Landover Maryland resident heard that the USDA would not issue benefits next month Bullock says she cried nervous about how she would provide for her kids who are in college Earlier this week Bullock left a local food pantry run by No Limits Outreach Ministries with only enough items including lettuce apple juice and canned goods to last two or three days Until in recent months her shopping cart would be overflowing I m telling the kids to look for jobs commented Bullock who is unemployed and applying for disability after having back surgery It s the only way we ll be able to eat The food pantry has been receiving fewer shipments from Capital Area Food Bank after two Covid -era relief programs were canceled earlier this year The pantry used to be able to offer meat fish eggs and milk to its clients but now it mostly has beans rice and canned foods declared Oliver Carter pastor of No Limits Outreach Ministries Our storage used to be full and now it s almost empty Carter announced