«Everyone needs to remember these are real people,» a food bank employee told Newsweek.
On a freezing Martin Luther King Day, a greater Pittsburgh food bank opened its doors for federal workers battling mounting bills as the government shutdown hit an unprecedented 31 days.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank first served affected families soon after they missed their first paycheck on January 11. “It started with a trickle,” Traci Weatherford-Brown, the charity’s chief advancement officer, told Newsweek. Just a handful of families. A dozen showed up to the next distribution. The number soon swelled to 70.
“It’s always hard for people to ask for help,” Weatherford-Brown said. But federal employees’ resolve was beginning to crack under the pressure of weeks without pay.
The food bank, which serves 11 counties, is expecting even more families to visit a downtown distribution on January 30.
One employee, an IRS law enforcement worker who was working without pay told her it was a tough decision to come to the food bank Monday. Normally well paid, she told Weatherford-Brown it felt like she was “taking something that should be for someone else.
