If the federal government shutdown doesn’t end in the next two days, it will affect not only food benefits for many low-income Ohio families in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. It could also shut out some of the 27,000 young children in the federally funded Ohio Head Start preschool program.

Seven Ohio Head Start programs could close on Saturday, which is when their federal grant money is set to arrive. Those programs serve 3,738 kids, or 14% of the more than 27,000 children in Ohio Head Start statewide. Three more rural programs are in danger as they don’t have the reserve funds to operate.

"There really is a ripple effect in terms of parents who count on Head Start to be able to go to work, the people who are employed by the program, the vendors they work with in

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