In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown.

About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. The 66-year-old widow, who lives outside Pittsburgh, is bracing to lose the $291 in food aid her disabled nephew gets each month. She raised her now-adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget is a tightrope.

"This month, I could not afford to pay … anything, gas or electric," she says. Instead she paid her monthly car payment, since she needs to drive to doctors' appointments, visit her mother, and

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