“Welcome to the Washington EBT customer service line,” a voice rang through the speaker of Chris P.’s phone. “ … Your food benefit balance is zero dollars and zero cents.” Chris, of Seattle, who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons, is one of nearly 930,000 Washington residents who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to make ends meet. Federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to tap into emergency funds to deliver benefits even as the government shutdown jeopardized funding for the program starting Nov. 1. But it’s not clear when or if recipients will actually receive them , meaning millions of Americans could face food insecurity and hunger . That includes Chris. Caught in uncertainty about the future of the benefits, and fearing thousands could go without food, local officials have spent the past week scrambling to fill whatever gaps will be left by the federal government. Gov. Bob Ferguson announced the state will direct nearly $2.2 million per week to Washington’s food banks , and the city of Seattle plans to release up to $4 million per month for food banks through the end of the year, or until SNAP benefits are restored. Mayor Bruce Harrell declared a limited civil emergency Oct. 30 , a proclamation generally reserved for riots or natural disasters. The Seattle City Council is expected to ratify the declaration in an emergency meeting Monday. Chris usually receives $300 in SNAP benefits on the first of the month, he explained as he sheltered from the rain in Lake City’s North Helpline Food Bank, next to a cart filled with eggs, celery, spaghetti and cabbage. He planned to go to two more food banks today, in Ballard and downtown Seattle, and he said he’d asked his boss for a few hours off. “Luckily,” he said, “my boss is understanding.” On Saturday, people braved the rain to pick up — or hand out — bread, vegetables, eggs and other essentials at food banks across the city; local restaurants offered free meals to those who lost SNAP benefits; and volunteers organized food drives to meet the need. “What we’re seeing now are food banks, mutual aid (groups), small businesses and individuals stepping up even more to stand in the gap,” said Shalimar Gonzales, CEO of Solid Ground, an antipoverty and social service nonprofit. “A crisis always brings community together, but this is a systematic failure from the federal government that is hurting people who need the most support.” Gonzales pointed out Washington usually sends out $37 million a week in SNAP funds. So while “helpful,” she said, the state and city’s emergency funding “really is a drop in the bucket.” Louren Reed, director of operations for North Helpline, a nonprofit with food banks in Lake City and Bitter Lake, pointed to an oversized calendar on their office wall. The numbers they fill in with a blue marker show that the number of households seeking food has been ticking up for months. This past Thursday, the figure jumped suddenly: North Helpline’s Lake City location served 231 households, the most people the nonprofit has served there on a Thursday. “Maybe 25% of the people were people we hadn’t seen in a while,” Reed said. The uncertainty around SNAP benefits likely has something to do with it, they said. On Nov. 1, the first day of the pause in SNAP benefits, “We have a lot of unfamiliar faces,” too, Reed said. Because the next few months look so uncertain, people are coming in seeking staples and shelf-stable food, Reed said. “They don’t know if this is going to continue for several months,” Reed added. And even those who still have rollover funds in their accounts — not everyone gets their benefits on the first of the month — may get into a “scarcity mindset,” Reed said. “So people start seeking other resources sooner rather than later.” Around 2 p.m., Reed said the Lake City location had served 342 households. Anything over 300 on a Saturday is exceptional. “This was a big day even with the rain and gale warnings,” Reed said in a text message. “I think the weather may have kept some folks away; the numbers next week will tell us more about increases in volume.” On Saturday afternoon, Owen Harrang walked up to two canopy tents shivering in the blustering wind and lowered Trader Joe’s grocery bags — filled with cans of soup, beans and pasta — into tall, cardboard U-Haul boxes. The boxes and tents were set up by volunteers for a one-day food drive at Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill, benefiting the Rainier Valley Food Bank and Jewish Family Service’s food bank, in response to the disruption in benefits. Harrang and three other people had pooled together $100 and went grocery shopping, he said. “It just seemed like a really easy thing to do for us,” he said. “We do it every day for ourselves; you might as well just grab a few extra bags.” The food drive came together quickly and “just sort of blew up on social media,” organizer Andrew Engelson said. “I think it really demonstrates that people want to do something.” “They’re coming out here because they feel real concern that letting people go hungry is not OK, and people recognize that, that’s why this is really hitting a nerve,” Engelson said. While Engelson said there was real concern, he felt optimism, too. “People in Seattle really care about one another, and that’s exciting,” he said. Jhonny Reyes, the chef and owner of Belltown restaurant Lenox, was making free to-go dinners for anyone affected by the loss of SNAP benefits. Saturday’s meal was “comfort food,” Reyes said: pollo guisado — stewed chicken thighs simmered in tomato and spices, served with rice, black beans and a side salad. The restaurant had received more than $3,000 in donations to offset costs. “From the messages and emails we’ve already gotten, it’s looking like we’ll fill the 30 meals we can offer each day pretty quickly,” Reyes said in an email. “It’s been pretty incredible to see,” Reyes added. “I think people just want to help. Everyone’s feeling how tough things are right now, and sometimes folks don’t know where to start, so when they see a way to make a direct impact, they show up. … This city’s got a big heart.”