People who rely on the federal food assistance program might not receive their benefits for the month of November because of the ongoing government shutdown.

Recipients of SNAP food assistance benefits across the country face a looming deadline: Come Nov. 1, their cards may not get refilled because of the government shutdown in Washington.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves nearly 42 million people each month, allocates money to states on a monthly basis. Benefits were largely uninterrupted over the past three weeks because funding for October was allocated to states before the shutdown began on Oct. 1.

But in a letter to SNAP state agency and regional directors on Oct. 10, the Department of Agriculture warned that there would not be enough funding to pay full SNAP benefits — also known as food stamps — in November if the shutdown persists.