Summer Kerksick waited in line for two hours Tuesday to receive a box of canned and dry goods at a food bank event for federal workers amid the ongoing government shutdown.
“With my rent due next week, I can take anything I can get,” Kerksick, a federal contractor and market research analyst with the Rural Export Center in the US Department of Commerce, told CNN.
“I haven’t gotten a paycheck this month, so the free groceries is very important, very helpful,” she added as she stood outside the event, which was organized by a DC food bank and a local religious group. “I’ve got to save every dime at this point.”
Kerksick is among the roughly 1.4 million federal employees who have been furloughed or are now working without pay.
Lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement to pay federal workers. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson introduced a bill that would only pay those who are being asked to continue working through the weekslong shutdown, while Democrats are pushing for all federal workers to be paid.
Capital Area Food Bank, which partnered with No Limits Outreach Ministries to host Tuesday’s event in Landover, Maryland, said it served more than 370 households — more than double the number of federal workers it was expecting. The event required federal employees to show their work ID to receive food.
“I’m overwhelmed by the line,” said Oliver Carter, the pastor at No Limits Outreach Ministries and organizer of the event. “I didn’t think we were going to have this many federal employees.”
Carter’s wife, Pamelia Carter, works at the Department of Agriculture and has worked in the federal government for 38 years and seen several shutdowns.
“I’ve run into quite a few coworkers here,” Pamelia Carter, the executive director of No Limits Outreach Ministries, told CNN, adding that the Tuesday’s event was “different” than the food outreach events the religious organization hosts every Friday. “There are at least 2 to 300 people in this line that we’re servicing today, federal employees. It’s mind-boggling.”
“I’m glad we’re at least able to do this because people have to eat. They have to feed their families, so this alone is a blessing,” she added.
Rolanda Williams, who works in the Social Security Administration, told CNN, “I can’t believe I’m here.”
“You always thought that getting a government job or you know, a federal job, that that’s security, and it’s not,” Williams added.
Williams said at first, she didn’t think she would need the assistance of a food bank but as the shutdown drags on, she needs the help.
“Initially, I was like, well I’d rather let people that have kids, you know, go to the food banks so that everyone could have food because I was okay,” Williams told CNN. “But now … it’s like I need to stand in line too.”
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