Recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves as a lifeline to millions of households struggling under a weak economy and high unemployment and underemployment, have been in effect for less than 30 days, but families are already feeling the impact as they struggle to put dinner on the table with reduced food budgets.

As a result, a growing number of families across the country are now turning to local food banks to keep staples like cereal and rice in their pantries.

As the New York Times notes, with Thanksgiving just days away, a line snaked around a Brooklyn block while people waited to enter an area food pantry, hoping to fill their grocery bags with potatoes, onions, milk and – if they were lucky – a chicken or ham for the week. The pantry had long ago run out of turkey, according to Melony Samuels, who runs the food bank.

Samuels’ pantry, like so many others, has been ‘wiped out