Food banks on Long Island say they're preparing for the worst with the future of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP still in limbo.

Island Harvest, the island's largest non-profit food distributor, said it's ramping up food distributions with its supply on hand, supporting smaller local pantries and bracing for what they call "an unprecedented surge" in the need for food on Long Island.

Around 184,000 Long Islanders rely on SNAP, which provides help buying food for people with low or no income.

Island Harvest said the communities it serves stand to lose $47 million in monthly support, which is equivalent to 93 million pounds of food, double what the facility distributes on its own in a year.

President Donald Trump’s administration faces deadlines today to tell two federal judges whether it will comply with court orders that it continue to fund SNAP by using contingency funds during the government shutdown. The U.S. Department of Agriculture froze payments to the program Saturday because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net — and it costs about $8 billion per month nationally. The situation leaves millions with uncertainty about how they will feed themselves.