The federal government said late Tuesday that it has identified funding to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Food Program, which provides food assistance to about 1.2 million low-income people each month in Michigan, operating through February.

That’s good news, but operating dollars for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program — which provides monthly boxes of food for tens of thousands of senior citizens in the region — run out after this week. The government will continue to provide food for the senior meal program through February, but that won’t cover administrative costs.

Thanks to a large warehouse on its Detroit campus, Focus:HOPE has about two months of food stored for the 44,000 seniors it provides with a box of food each month.

That store can sustain the senior food program into mid-March, Focus: HOPE President and CEO Portia Roberson said, and the nonprofit, which operates on a $32 million annual budget, has some general fund dollars to cover the $230,000 it takes to operate the program each month.

“Obviously, that could not go on for a year. … the hope is we won’t have to go for an extended period of time,” Roberson said.

A more immediate concern: Federal employees who aren’t being paid during the shutdown are likely to need food assistance. Gleaner’s Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan is coordinating with United Way for Southeastern Michigan and 10 area pantries and food distribution sites to ensure those who need food while they wait for their next paycheck can get it.

There are an estimated 5,000-6,000 federal employees in the state, with the bulk of them here in Southeastern Michigan, according to reported estimates.

Those employees work for federal departments including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Gleaners President and CEO Gerry Brisson.

This is the first week federal workers will miss a paycheck, but most people live paycheck to paycheck, “so we can’t have no response now,” Brisson said.

Gleaners has begun packing 1,000 food boxes with staples like spaghetti and spaghetti sauce to get federal employees over the hump, he said.

The boxes will be available starting Monday at 10 pantries/food distribution sites in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties.

Most people can make it for a week without a paycheck, he said, so “we think 1,000 boxes will be more than enough to get through the first wave,” with distribution expanded as needed.

The first wave of boxes will cost Gleaners $23,000.

“We have operating cash for emergencies, about 60 days of operating cash in the bank just for this kind of thing,” Brisson said.

“But there’s no question if the emergency lasts a long time, we’re going to have to go out and ask people to help us.”

United Way has agreed to serve as a referral point, directing federal employees who call its 211 health and human services hotline to the nearest pantry for a food box.

United Way’s 211 staff is prepared to offer that support, said Eric Davis, vice president of basic needs, health and outreach.

“The next couple of weeks I think we should be OK. But if it goes much larger than that, we’re going to have some serious problems … once the benefits start to diminish,” Davis said.

Child nutrition programs such as Women, Infants and Children, and other food assistance programs will also see funding into February and March.

“SNAP is the biggest concern. It is the biggest federal food program. All of the other food programs combined don’t do as much as SNAP,” Brisson said. In Michigan, the program has more recipients than any other entitlement program offered, outside of Medicaid.

Beyond food assistance programs, federal housing and rental subsidies are being jeopardized by the shutdown, “putting people at risk of losing their place to live at the coldest time of the year,” Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, said in an emailed statement.