"Now we'll have to prioritize which bills we can pay and which can wait," said one mother of two about a looming freeze in food aid.

Across the country, there are over 41 million people enrolled in the federal government’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

“Show me a nation that cannot feed itself, and I’ll show you a nation in chaos,” former Senate Agriculture Committee chair Pat Roberts said in 2015. With Democrats and Republicans at a standstill with negotiations over the federal budget, communities nation-wide can’t count on the government to step in and help.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warns over 40 million Americans could lose SNAP food stamp benefits November 1 due to ongoing government shutdown funding crisis.

The allocation of emergency funding is intended to help more than 440,000 Minnesotans who will go without federal and state nutrition assistance in November due to the shutdown.