Federal food assistance has started to flow again after the government reopened. But the charitable food system is planning for continued need through the end of the year.

Wesley Bradley knows how to make his food assistance stretch. Breakfast is not necessarily bacon, eggs or sausage; it can be a bowl of oatmeal or cereal.

“Sometimes I have a bowl, sometimes I don’t,” said Bradley, who was waiting for food outside the Urban Mission in Oklahoma City on a recent November morning.

Bradley, who is a military veteran, receives about $120 monthly for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. He’s one of more than 41 million people across the U.S. who had their food aid halted earlier this month during the federal government shutdown.

Food banks and pantri

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