Andersen works a tough, unglamorous job in customer service at a social security centre. I’ve been in those grim government offices to obtain my social security card. I don’t imagine she is paid enough at the best of times for the job she has to do.
She says she is fine, relatively; her household has another wage coming in, and she uses coupons a lot. But the longer it goes on, the harder it gets.
“I’m disappointed in us,” Andersen says. “When I say ‘us’, I mean the United States. I’m very disappointed. People escape their home to come here, and now I have people talking about, ‘Where can we go to escape this wonderful land?’ It’s ridiculous.”
Emergency food banks targeting federal workers are popping up all over the country, including this one in Fort Worth, Texas.Credit: AP
Every so often, one of the volunteers ushers the next 10 people in the queue towards a stall where two women check each guest has a federal government ID. They can then proceed to a row of trestle tables to collect a box of fresh produce and a box of standard pantry items, as well as extra items from donations from a local farm.
There’s bread and bagels, cookies and muffins, collard greens and melons, as well as boxes of cheese, half-and-half (milk and cream) and probiotic drinks. A few stray packs of chicken drumsticks remain. Organisers were expecting to hand out 400 households’ worth of food in two hours.
The food bank is run with No Limits Outreach Ministries, a service for the needy. “I’m in a unique situation because my wife is actually a federal worker,” says Pastor Oliver Curtis. “So we are helping as we need help.”
Pastor Oliver Curtis of No Limits Outreach Ministries at a food bank in Landover, Maryland.Credit: Michael Koziol
Curtis takes me into the former shop where he runs his sparse operation. Shelves that are normally full are running low on food, he says; they have had to suspend a regular Wednesday food bank for seniors.
“It’s a state of urgency because we don’t know when this is going to be over. Usually, we can call on the federal government when a disaster is going on. And now it’s like, ‘who do we call?’”
Most of the food bank patrons don’t want to talk to the media; one woman frantically asks me to delete a video that might have captured her young son. Those who are happy to chat don’t want their photo taken.
I understand; it’s not a flattering position in which to be pictured. I also get a sense there’s some nervousness; they are federal government workers, not usually allowed to speak to reporters, and probably conscious of this administration’s sensitivity to criticism.
A box of produce for furloughed federal workers at a Capital Area Food Bank in Alexandria, Virginia.Credit: Bloomberg
Republicans want a so-called “clean” resolution that would temporarily reopen the government. Democrats are refusing to give that bill the 60-plus votes it needs in the Senate, demanding funds for healthcare programs that are due to expire.
Perhaps scarred by an episode earlier this year when he was criticised for not standing up to Trump, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer is refusing to yield, even as the SNAP program (food stamps) is set to lapse for 40 million Americans on November 1.
This week, the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal government and Washington DC workers, drew a line in the sand. Its president, Everett Kelley, backed the Republican position, calling for a clean bill to end the shutdown immediately.
Democrats’ Senate leader Chuck Schumer is refusing to yield to Republican demands to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to temporarily reopen the government.Credit: AP
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“It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” he wrote.
“Because when the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren’t looking for partisan spin. They’re looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they’re being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.”
