US families turn to food banks and relatives as benefits stall

By Leah Douglas

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) -When Daletia Chung, of Montgomery County, Maryland, learned that her November food benefits would be delayed, she immediately made a plan with extended family to share meals and groceries so she could keep herself and her child fed.

But she can’t lean on them forever, she said after picking up a basket of groceries from the Manna Food Center food bank in Silver Spring.

“If I don’t receive any (benefits) in two weeks, then I’m going to wonder, what are the options?” Chung said.

Chung is among the nearly 42 million Americans whose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, are delayed by the ongoing government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history.

For many of them, the start of November has broug