HAMILTON, Ohio — The money never lasts.

That's what Heather Chasteen tells me with a smile. But that smile quickly fades when she closes an empty cupboard in her kitchen.

Chasteen said she normally gets around $600 in government assistance for food each month. It’s always gone before the end of the month, she said. Because she uses that money to take care of five grandchildren and her dad, who has Parkinson’s disease and rarely gets out of bed.

“We barely scrape by,” Chasteen said. “And it will be that way forever.”

She's sitting in the backyard now, watching her grandkids play football. She was supposed to go to a tournament in Tennessee with them this weekend, but called and canceled her room.

She can’t afford it anymore.

“I can hardly sleep right now,” Chasteen said. “We’re going

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