AI-assisted summary

A potential federal government shutdown threatens food assistance for 650,000 Missourians who receive SNAP benefits.

Missouri food pantries are experiencing a surge in demand from families trying to prepare for a potential loss of benefits.

Food pantry directors are concerned they lack the resources to make up for the gap if SNAP funding is suspended.

For Whitney Jackson and her four children, not knowing if her family will receive federal food assistance next month means trying “to make the most of a smaller meal so we can save the food stamps.”

Jackson, a single mother from Columbia working as a certified medical assistant, said she has $44 of her family’s October benefits left.

“I’m trying to stretch it until the end of the month,” she said, “but is $44 going t

See Full Page