ORLANDO, Fla. – Shirley Laureano, a mother to two young children, relies on $700 a month in federal food stamp money to help buy her family’s groceries as her job at a tea house doesn’t pay enough to cover all her bills.
She expected November’s funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP or food stamps, to be available Thursday. But because of the ongoing government shutdown Laureano, like millions of other Americans, did not get her money.
So Friday morning she joined about 300 others lined up at an east Orange County church for a food giveaway. Many arrived 90 minutes early, desperate to get a box full of chicken, ground beef, produce, rice and beans…