Millions of Texans will lose federal food assistance in November, raising questions of where to get free meals and groceries.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will stop paying qualifying Texans for food due to insufficient funding, affecting the 3.5 million Texans who get these benefits on their Lone Star Cards each month. More than half of these enrollees are children.

The federal government shut down Oct. 1 after lawmakers missed their deadline to fund federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees SNAP, also known as food stamps, said “the well has run dry,” and it cannot keep covering food costs for participants.

Effects of the pause will be especially widespread in Texas, which has the highest population

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