Feeding America Doors Open for Federal Employees

Feeding America issued a statement in support of federal workers who are coming to its food banks to help make ends meet because of the recent government shutdown.  The statement came about as a reaction to comments from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.  On Thursday, Ross was quoted as saying he couldn’t understand why unpaid federal employees were going to food banks.  The Feeding America statement said “Feeding America and our network of 200-member food banks know that just one missed paycheck can be the difference between making ends meet and needing our help.”

The Hagstrom Report quotes Feeding America as saying it’s growing increasingly concerned about the hardships federal employees went through as approximately 800,000 workers were due to miss a second paycheck on Friday.  President Trump announced a temporary agreement to reopen the government on Friday, but the shutdown is a perfect illustration of what Feeding America knows all-too-well; millions of hard-working Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and never are far from becoming food insecure.

Because of the very real danger that the shutdown posed to so many affected workers, the Feeding America network of food banks and 60,000 partner agencies have extended their hours, hosted mobile food distributions, and increased their supplies to meet more needs.

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