CHICAGO — Illinois mother of four and food delivery driver Aubrey Lewandowski says she immediately started rationing the food she had left after getting a text alerting her that her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits may not come through next month.

Lewandowski will be forced to choose between buying healthy food for her four children and paying rent and utility bills if the federal government does not allocate emergency funds by the Nov. 1 deadline .

She is one of roughly 1.9 million people in Illinois and 42 million across the country who depend on SNAP benefits each month. Illinois oversees the distribution of $350 million in federal SNAP benefits to qualifying low-income and disabled individuals and households each month.

Illinois and other states sued t

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