None of this is normal. Food-stamp benefits have never been cut like this in the current program’s more-than-60-year history. “It is a significant inflection point in the program’s history,” Christopher Bosso, a political scientist at Northeastern University who wrote a book on SNAP, told me. “Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.”

Here's what individuals and families need to know about SNAP eligibility, applying for SNAP, and what happens after submitting your SNAP application.

Annemarie King is eating only once a day, and her husband, Randall, is picking up extra shifts at the drywall factory where he works. They are among the nearly 42 million Americans preparing for their food stamp benefits to run dry in November because of the ongoing government shutdown.

The president has stretched the limits of his powers to help those at the heart of his agenda, not the many in greatest need.

While it doesn’t endear him to the food-stamp-hatin’ Newt Gingrich crowd, Mayor Bloomberg’s expansion of the federal nutrition benefit might rank as one of the signal accomplishments of his mayoralty. From January 2003 to the first month of this year ...