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The snowcapped mountains surrounding northwest Montana's Flathead Reservation are a sign winter is coming.

Mary Lefthand pulls her truck up to a warehouse in the valley below.

This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News .

She's driven over the town of St. Ignatius, to pick up free food from the commodity program run by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Tribal commodity food programs are federally funded, but weren't impacted by the federal government shutdown.

Unlike SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which was very much under threat.

During the government shutdown, SNAP's 41 million recipients didn't know if they would receive benefits for November.

Lefthand receives SNAP. She prefers it to the commoditi

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