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D.C.'s Biggest Food Pantry Is 'Definitely Busier' As Unpaid Workers Struggle To Make Ends Meet
WAMU | JAN 16, 10:20 AM
D.C.’s Biggest Food Pantry Is ‘Definitely Busier’ As Unpaid Workers Struggle To Make Ends Meet
Patrick Madden
The customers at Bread For The City are typically homeless, elderly, disabled, or living in deep poverty. But D.C.’s largest food pantry is now serving a new category of people in need: unpaid federal workers and contractors.
On Tuesday, volunteers at the facility in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest D.C. worked quickly as they packed groceries into shopping bags for a long line that included many furloughed workers.
“We’re working. We’re not getting paid. It’s not fair,” said one federal worker waiting in line who didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisals.
She’s one of the roughly 400,000 “essential” federal employees who still have to work but aren’t getting paid. She said she’s taking care of two children as her day-to-day life unravels. ... “I get up, go to work, come home and wonder how long my food is going to last,” she said. ... Others in line had been sidelined by the shutdown.
....
This story originally appeared on WAMU.
D.C.’s Biggest Food Pantry Is ‘Definitely Busier’ As Unpaid Workers Struggle To Make Ends Meet
Patrick Madden
The customers at Bread For The City are typically homeless, elderly, disabled, or living in deep poverty. But D.C.’s largest food pantry is now serving a new category of people in need: unpaid federal workers and contractors.
On Tuesday, volunteers at the facility in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest D.C. worked quickly as they packed groceries into shopping bags for a long line that included many furloughed workers.
“We’re working. We’re not getting paid. It’s not fair,” said one federal worker waiting in line who didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisals.
She’s one of the roughly 400,000 “essential” federal employees who still have to work but aren’t getting paid. She said she’s taking care of two children as her day-to-day life unravels. ... “I get up, go to work, come home and wonder how long my food is going to last,” she said. ... Others in line had been sidelined by the shutdown.
....
This story originally appeared on WAMU.
