On the first day of every month, Ethel Ingram goes to the grocery store with $171 in federally funded food stamps and a nearly impossible mission: Buy enough food for the next 30 days. She usually fails. A couple of weeks into most months, she’s forced to pursue another goal: visiting enough food banks to stock her refrigerator until the month ends and her account reloads. But this month, the government shutdown cut off food assistance to her and millions of others. Now Ingram’s options to feed herself are dwindling. Her account balance remains at zero, and the food banks she relies on are more crowded than she has ever seen them.

This is what happens when a record-long government shutdown affects millions of Americans who are already struggling with the high cost of food, housing, child care, and just about everything else. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has stopped issuing payments for the first time in its 61-year history, leaving a sudden gash in the social safety net. For the nearly 42 million SNAP beneficiaries, November 1 was the day that the government shutdown became intensely personal.

“November’s going to be kind of rough,” Ingram, a 76-year-old resident of Sanford, Florida, told me. Last week she visited a local church’s food drive, where she was able to get two pieces of meat she hopes will sustain her for the week. “I’ve got my other bills coming up. I’ve got my light bill; I’ve got my water bill; I’ve got car insurance. It’s going to be rough.”

Stories of overwhelmed food banks and hunger-stricken families have pushed members of Congress to finally begin serious discussions about bringing the 35-day shutdown to an end.