Food Pantry Visits From Military Families Up 30% Since Shutdown Began
“The government shutdown has surpassed one week and has put federal workers and military families in a financial bind, with food pantries in some portions of the country experiencing 30% upticks in traffic.
At midnight Oct. 1 the federal government shut down over political squabbling between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, with rhetoric ramping up as posturing on each side of the aisle has become futile. Democrats want assurances regarding health insurance subsidies while Republican lawmakers and the White House have accused the opposition of wanting to embolden illegal immigrants.
Dissipating negotiations have resulted in threats from President Donald Trump and GOP leaders to potentially not provide back pay to roughly 75,000 federal workers. The shutdown has impacted other facets of daily life including air travel, national parks, and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food program.
Of course, military service members and their families are also at the whim of politicians’ inaction. The Armed Services YMCA, which was instituted in 1861 during the Civil War to provide relief and comfort to sick and wounded soldiers, has encouraged the broader military community to take advantage of food assistance and other programs that in the short term could minimize financial strain incurred from delayed payments.
“Starting last week at our normal food operations, we saw an increase in demand,” Dorene Ocamb, chief development and brand officer of ASYMCA, told Military.com. “As a result, we ran out of food a little more quickly than normal. We had about a 34% increase in Killeen, Texas, which was the first sort of food distribution after the shutdown happened.”
Read more at Military.com.