Hochul said she’s trying to find a way to allow students to take home food that’s left over at the end of the school day as well.

The SNAP program is losing federal funding on Saturday. Many older people won’t be able to easily line up at food pantries or go out and get second jobs.

The fear of hunger is permeating food pantries and grocery stores across the tri-state and around the country, with many families unsure of where their next meal came from once their SNAP benefits run out.

"Now we'll have to prioritize which bills we can pay and which can wait," said one mother of two about a looming freeze in food aid.

Nearly 3 million New Yorkers may lose SNAP benefits on Nov. 1 if the government shutdown continues and food pantries are bracing for a demand surge.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has resisted calls for smaller, separate spending bills after Schumer and his party voted 13 times to deny all federal funding and keep the government shut

New York State and a coalition of states have filed lawsuits against the USDA for suspending SNAP benefits, arguing that the agency has at least $6 billion in contingency funds available to cover the benefits and that the suspension is both avoidable and unnecessary.

As 1.8 million New York City residents brace for their food assistance to be cut off this Saturday, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced a multistate lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday over its decision to suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the ongoing federal government