WASHINGTON -- When Jill Hornick woke up on a recent Monday morning, her first thought was that her timecard would be submitted that day for her job with the Social Security Administration in Chicago. But this Monday was different. The federal government was locked in a shutdown, and she received a paycheck for $0.

“This is the only income I have,” she said. “And I just started crying. I had a meltdown.”

Hornick, 59, is one of 730,000 federal employees working without pay because of the impasse. Another 670,000 federal workers are furloughed without pay, according to data from the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

As the shutdown stretches toward its fifth week, those government employees are confronting an increasingly acute and stressful scenario. Their bills are mounting, and there is no clear resolution in sight.

Some are turning to side hustles such as delivering food, walking dogs and selling personal items to bring in a bit of income. Others are relying on food banks that have been hastily organized to provide federal workers and contractors with free groceries -- efforts that community service providers say reflect a broadening food insecurity caused by the shutdown.

The widespread anxiety is punctuating what has already been a grueling year for federal workers as the Trump administration has raced to shrink and reshape the government, and moved to eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The last shutdown, which came during President Donald Trump’s first term, was the longest ever, lasting 34 full days. The current standoff, which began Oct. 1, could stretch even longer. There are no negotiations for a deal to reopen the government, which Democrats say must include an agreement to extend expiring subsidies for health insurance.

“I will only meet if they let the country open,” he said Tuesday, just days before he left Washington for a trip to Asia.

The impact of the political paralysis could be seen early Friday morning as hundreds of cars lined a road in Northern Virginia, filled with federal workers and government contractors waiting for boxes of food being distributed by United Community, a local nonprofit group.

It was one of five sites set up in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank, a hunger relief organization, to distribute groceries in the Washington region, which is home to nearly 20% of the federal workforce.