NORWALK, Conn - Beneficiary access to food stamp debit cards in Ohio and 16 other states has been restored.

According to a statement from Xerox, which provides EBT service to the affected states, re-starting the system required time to ensure service was back at full functionality.

The system went down around 11 a.m. Saturday following a routine check by the Xerox resulted in a system failure. All states that utilize Xerox systems were affected.

The restoration may come too late for people like Mary Huston of Boardman, who made the discovery when she scanned her card at a local drug store while picking up her medicines and groceries.

"You can only use the bus for certain hours. There's no bus on Sunday." said Hutson. "I'm kind of messed up for this whole weekend because I can't get on the bus after four o'clock and I can't get on the bus on Sunday. So it's like I don't have food."

Xerox says it continues to investigate the cause of the issue so it can take steps to ensure a similar interruption does not re-occur.