'Families don't have other options' | Government shutdown puts federal nutrition program at risk

CINCINNATI — The government has been shut down for nearly a week, with no signs of a deal for a spending bill to reopen the government.

If the shutdown continues, lawmakers expect a federal nutritional program for children known as the Women, Infants and Children program, to run out of money as soon as this week. Now, some food pantries, like the Freestore Foodbank, have no choice but to make contingency plans.

On a Monday afternoon in Over-the-Rhine, the demand is apparent for the thousands of low-income families who rely on the Freestore Foodbank.

"75 percent of the families that we're serving are working, they're just not making enough money to make ends meet," said Kurt Reiber, President and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank.

Reiber told us last Tuesday, they saw more than 500 families