CHICAGO — When Jodie Yanek received the rest of her long-awaited SNAP benefits for the month — and after buying some food to tide her over — she started thinking about how she could put together a small Thanksgiving dinner for her and her boyfriend with a $60 budget.

The 47-year-old compared turkey and ham prices at a nearby South Deering grocery store. She dreamed of mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and ended up buying a pie.

“I was ecstatic,” Yanek said of getting the benefits. “I cried tears of joy. It was very scary the prospect of losing it.”

Yanek, like countless others across Illinois, say they’ve dealt with confusion and uncertainty heading into the holiday because of the federal back-and-forth on funding for food stamps. Some of the Illinoisans the Tribune spoke to were still questioning whether they’ll be able to put any food on the table let alone turkey and stuffing. Many have relied on local food pantries for help.

As the longest government shutdown in history lumbered on, nearly 2 million people across the state — and more than 40 million nationwide — were cut off from food stamps at the beginning of November, leaving many scrambling.

The Illinois Department of Human Services said full November benefits should have been delivered to recipients by Nov. 20, just a week before Thanksgiving. The department also said in a statement that the lapse in funding created “unnecessary hardship” and was “entirely avoidable.”

“The Trump administration had the funding to fully support SNAP but chose not to, putting tens of millions of Americans at risk of hunger,” IDHS said. December benefits should be handed out like normal.

Yanek said she immediately started panicking when she didn’t receive all of the benefits this month. She walked about 3 miles to a food pantry. When the pantry ran out of food, she said she had to get more creative — searching for food in dumpsters or asking for spare change.

Yanek said she has a work exemption for SNAP because she participates in a drug treatment program. She’s struggled with addiction, but said she managed to get clean for almost two years.

“Without that assistance, things would be a whole lot worse,” Yanek said. “I’m just so grateful for that help because it alleviates a lot of my worries. I’m already having worries on how I’m going to get basic necessities, personal hygiene, cleaning supplies for my apartment.”

Amanda Roberts, 35, said she hopes to find Thanksgiving food that her three children will like at suburban food pantries. Her oldest has autism and the younger two have developmental delays which can sometimes make it tricky to select food. The Naperville resident said she hopes to be able to make just some “simple things” for the holiday.

“As a mother, you do whatever you have to do to make sure that your children don’t know you’re in poverty because they’re children, and it’s not their job to know that,” she said. “I make Christmas happen every year. Thanksgiving happen. … It breaks my heart that I have to work, pay the bills, and I can barely give them what they need, but I try so hard.”

Some Illinois residents received partial benefits in November despite President Donald Trump’s administration push in court. But for many, including Roberts, it wasn’t nearly enough. The Naperville resident said she received a “laughable” $62 compared with the nearly $400 she normally gets.

She said her kids have been eating ramen many nights. Roberts said she skipped meals some days, only eating at her job at a sandwich shop.

“It’s just been a struggle to make sure there’s enough for them. And sometimes there’s not,” she said. “Sometimes on the weekends we wait till 1 o’clock to eat something because we don’t have anything.”

Julie Yurko, president and CEO of the Northern Illinois Food Bank, said they saw a 26% increase in visits across their network of about 900 food pantries in 13 suburban and rural counties. That’s about 80,000 extra visits, she said.

She said the nonprofit is also preparing for “additional headwinds” as more changes to SNAP come soon. Trump signed into law earlier this year a sweeping Republican domestic package that expanded work requirements for SNAP benefits to previously exempt groups such as adults ages 55 to 64.

For Thanksgiving, the food bank distributes thousands of holiday meal boxes. The boxes contain meal trimmings such as stuffing, corn, hot cocoa and canned fruit. Neighbors also will receive a turkey, turkey breast or ham, depending on the location, Yurko said.

“It’s an American tradition. When someone is struggling, when someone has an unexpected life event, we come around, our neighbors, in our communities, and we help,” Yurko said. “I’m just so hoping that our country sees the impact of some of these decisions and decides to do better.”

At the Polish American Association’s pantry in Portage Park Tuesday morning, a line snaked around the block. The organization’s executive director, Eva Prokop, said about 160 families showed up to receive, among other food, turkeys and produce. One of their most in-demand products is baby formula, she said.

When SNAP was cut off, Prokop said they had a threefold increase in their lines. She said food pantries like hers can serve as temporary stopgaps, but can’t replace SNAP. Some of their elderly clients worry about standing outside in the cold, for example, and there’s limits to how much food the building can store.

“There are only so many hands and so many square feet and so many heads of lettuce,” Prokop said.

Theresa Czeberat, 71, sat in a room waiting for her number to be called to pick out food Tuesday. She doesn’t receive SNAP benefits, but said food parties are a big help especially when you live by herself. She plans to spend Thanksgiving with a friend and her son.

“Everything is so expensive now when you go to the store,” she said. “The rents are so unbelievable now.”

On the holiday, Diane Pearson, 76, plans to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.” She and her daughter watched it every year on Thanksgiving, and it’s a tradition she wants to carry on even though her daughter died of cancer two years ago, Pearson said.

Without her daughter’s help, Pearson said she’s struggled financially. She said her age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease, also progressed in the past year so that she’s now legally blind. SNAP has helped her afford groceries, and when it was cut off “it really affected me to the core.”

Pearson was one of about 50 people who received a $100 gift card to grocery stores earlier this month from Friedman Place, a nonprofit that supports adults who are blind.

“To me that 100 bucks was like a pile of gold,” Pearson said. “I ate hot dogs and beans and I felt like I was in a swanky (restaurant). I had gone two days without eating. Drank a lot of water but there was no food in the house.”

Victor Ferrel, who is also blind, had some money saved for emergencies but said it started to dwindle as the weeks went by. The 64-year-old said he plans to use the gift certificate and his SNAP benefits to buy pop and pies for Thanksgiving dinner at his sister’s house.

Ferrel said he feels like politicians treated him and others on SNAP like “pawns.”

“The Republicans and Democrats back and forth. It’s irritating and they’re affecting a lot of people, and people that are disabled,” he said. “They got to get their act together.”

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