LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The U.S. federal government is once again on the brink of shutdown – with a Sunday deadline looming over millions of Americans.
The Office of Management and Budget has already advised federal agencies to review and update their shutdown plans. If Congress fails to pass a short-term spending bill by Sunday, four million federal employees will feel the impact.
For people in Louisville who rely on federal programs for basic necessities, like food, even one day of a shutdown will have drastic impacts.
According to the USDA, over 100,000 Kentuckians receive benefits through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and over 500,000 use benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
If a shutdown happens, people who rely on SNAP would receive benefits through October - but it's unknown what would happen after that.
For people who rely on WIC benefits, the USDA said funds would dry up in a few days, leaving it up to the states to fund the program.
"It's really hard to prepare, the best thing we can do is know that this is coming," Jessie Whitish, director of development at Neighborhood House, said.
Whitish said Neighborhood House gave out 400 boxes of food to people in Louisville just last month, and expects a sharp increase of people needing to use their resources once the word gets out about the risk to their benefits.
"Of course that's going to make parents wonder how they're going to feed their kids, and as soon as that happens I know we are going to start getting questions," Whitish said.
Whitish said more demand in the food pantry leads to a questionable supply of food and resources.
“We are hoping to have our shelves fully stocked for everyone that needs stuff, but even right now our shelves are pretty bare and people weren’t questioning whether their benefits were going to come through," Whitish said.
Hopefully, it doesn't get to that point.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate have until the end of Saturday to reach a compromise on a dozen bills that would fund the U.S. government.
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