Families grapple with shutdown’s lingering effects this Thanksgiving

Mease and her family anticipate serving and delivering 700 meals, up from about 625 last year, to account for food insecurity worsened by the shutdown. - (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

The promise of a new beginning and a celebratory Thanksgiving meal has been overshadowed by lingering financial insecurity for families like Shelby Williams, whose meticulously planned budget was thrown into disarray by the recent government shutdown.

Williams, a mother of two from Reeds Spring, Missouri, had carefully calculated every dollar, balancing an impending insurance payment against her hard-earned wages and government SNAP assistance. After more than two years living with her parents, she was finally set to move into her own apartment, envisioning a Thanksgiving feast prepared by her children, joined by their grandparents.