Monday marks day 34 of the federal government shutdown, and all eyes are on the U.S. Senate to see if lawmakers can strike a deal ahead of their next vote.
If they don't and the shutdown goes into Tuesday, it will be tied for the longest shutdown in American history.
Watch our interview with Forgotten Harvest CEO Adrian Lewis in the video below
Meanwhile, its impact on everyday Americans continues to grow, as millions of people are now without critical food assistance.
Funding for federal SNAP benefits officially ran dry over the weekend, leaving 42 million low-income Americans, including 16 million children, wondering how they will afford their next meal.
Two federal judges are firing back at the Trump administration, ordering the payments to move forward. The president said he'll eventually provide the funding, but wants more direction from the court first.
“Just make a decision. People are out here really suffering, you know hungry," Diamonique Wright, a Detroit mom of four, said.
She's a SNAP recipient and with four kids at home, every cent she gets helps.
“It is a plus for me being a mom of four and it does goes a long way, it truly go along way," she said. "It gives my children the food that they need, it gives me a piece of mind at the end of the night knowing that they do have food to eat."
The record-breaking 35-day stoppage happened during Trump's first term. This time, the USDA put in an October memo that it wouldn't use over $5 billion in contingency funds saying, "the well has run dry," and arguing those funds are for natural disasters. It also said it wouldn't pay states back for funding SNAP with state money.
"We have over 200 pantry partner distributors throughout metro Detroit and they are seeing as much as 10-15% increase in demand well and that’s combined," Forgotten Harvest CEO Adrian Lewis said.
Michigan has injected $4.5 million into the state food bank council. In Michigan, each household receives on average $335 a month with SNAP, which is just under $6 a day pe perso.
“You just have to make it work and day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour, you just have to do what you have to do," Wright said.
The USDA is supposed to lay out a plan on how it will fund SNAP during the shutdown, but those payments could be reduced.
