Loma Lopez, 81, doesn’t receive much in the way of food assistance — just $24 a month, she said. But as the legal guardian of her 6-year-old great grandson, raising him on her Social Security benefits, every dollar counts.

“I’m able to buy his milk, his cheese, usually juice,” said the Auburn resident. “He loves his fruits.”

No Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will go out in November to roughly 42 million low-income Americans, as the partial government shutdown enters its fifth week and federal funding dries up. It will be the first time benefits have been suspended since the program was formally established over 60 years ago.

The halt has forced the nearly 930,000 Washington residents who rely on SNAP to prepare to make gut-wrenching choices, as state officials have s

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