Video: Americans line up for free meals as shutdown threat sparks fears of ‘no food aid November’

A video purportedly shows Americans lining up for free meals as the United States government shutdown drags on, sparking fears of a “no food aid November” after several states warned that these benefits may not be distributed next month.

The time-lapse video shows dozens of Americans standing in a winding queue to collect free meal benefits, reportedly filmed in Landover, Maryland.

Several social media users claimed the people in line were federal employees. While 700,000 federal workers furloughed, nearly as many working without pay as the US government shutdown continues. Mint could not independently verify the claims of the video.

Americans line up for free meals amid shutdown: Watch

At least a dozen states – including Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania and Texas – have warned of a possible disruption in benefits for over 41 million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, and nearly 7 million recipients of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program – threatening rising hunger rates in the country as the shutdown continues.

Minerva Delgado, director of coalitions and advocacy at the Alliance to End Hunger, said, “Families are going to be hurt by this should it continue, at a time we know families are struggling to make ends meet.”

Several of the roughly two dozen states that issued warnings have listed earlier cutoff dates for food stamp distribution.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, for instance, states on its website that “SNAP benefits for November won’t be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past October 27.

Oregon said, “We encourage everyone who receives SNAP to familiarize themselves with the free food resources in their community and to make a plan for what they will do if they do not receive their food benefits in November on time.”

Meanwhile, economists have claimed that a prolonged shutdown of the government in the United States could impact the economic growth.

Economists estimated that the shutdown was shaving 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off annualized inflation-adjusted gross domestic product growth per week. The hit from the shutdown, now in its third week, would be largely on consumer spending and lost federal worker productivity.

"There is going to be an impact on the economy," Reuters quoted Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, as saying.

“It's not going to push the economy into recession, but the longer this drags on, the more permanent losses are for Fed workers that may have had to cut back on expenses because they haven't been paid or because, essentially, while they are expecting retroactive pay, they're just being more judicious with their finances.”

Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College, said the immediate impacts include halted food stamp distributions and underpayments, while the longer-term consequences are harder to gauge.

“There are the short-term effects which are already playing out, and then there are the longer-term effects which are more difficult to calibrate and that will depend specifically on when and if it's resolved. But as this drags on, these short-term effects definitely accumulate.”

(With Reuters inputs)