On Saturday morning, bundled in a coat, hat and gloves, Alicia Engel waited in a line outside Fountain Square Church of Christ for a cart of free groceries. An hour before the city-sponsored event was scheduled to end, volunteers ran out of food — and Engel left empty-handed.
Earlier in the week, she panicked when she checked her SNAP card and saw a message: “There will be no November benefits due to the government shutdown.”
For days, she watched headlines shift with the political fight — first no benefits, then half, then the full amount sometime. But nothing arrived, so she planned to get free groceries at the church…