The pause in SNAP benefits means there are families in Arizona who are now in need of help with food. Here's more about SNAP, and where people can get help or help others affected.

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.”

Food banks and hunger relief organizations are seeing an increase in the number of people lining up for food packages since SNAP benefits were halted on Nov. 1.

While the political and legal wrangling continues, the bottom line for thousands of families, including the 1 in 20 in Utah who rely on food stamps for at least part of their food, is uncertainty about the future and no benefits at the moment.

The federal government is directing all states to issue fifty percent of each household’s normal monthly SNAP benefit amount for November. But Oregon officials say it is not a simple process.

SNAP benefits won't go out and open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act plans with premiums expected to rise. A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to suspend SNAP funding is “unlawful” but declined to immediately order the program be funded.

What to know as the shutdown persists

It's not clear when millions of families will get November SNAP benefits, even after judges ruled the government needs to make partial payments.