Federal employees seeking help with food amid gov’t shutdown

Food Bank President Mari Jo Laborde

By THE STAR STAFF

Thirty-seven days into the federal government shutdown, the number of employees seeking food assistance is on the rise, according to Food Bank President Mari Jo Laborde.

“Well, what we’ve been doing is working with management, whether from the union or the specific agency, to prevent non-federal employees from coming to the distribution and to ensure that all federal employees can participate,” Laborde told reporters. “We’re organizing groups on Thursdays, scheduling appointments. We initially started with 500 families per distribution on Thursdays, and we’re already up to 800. If this continues next week, we anticipate possibly increasing to 1,000 families.”

“It’s very welcome help,” she added. “These are employees who work, who are used to receiving an income, to being self-sufficient, and they never imagined they would find themselves needing to come to a food bank. So it’s difficult for them. We see them grateful, happy, sometimes very distressed, because they know how difficult the situation is. And we are available to help everyone we can.”

Laborde mentioned that the federal shutdown also affects the Food Bank because it depends on the Department of Agriculture to purchase food.

“Thanks to Feeding America, our parent company, and the support of nonprofit organizations that have also helped us, as well as donor entities to federal employees, we are prepared to serve,” she said. “Certainly, we have seen an impact from the federal shutdown. The food supply chain for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, or USDA, as we call it here, which is a large part of the product we deliver, will be reduced because purchases are frozen. We are being affected. We have seen fewer products. It is expected to continue like this because the purchases we are making today will not be seen again in December. But we are prepared to handle it with federal employees.”

“Now, if the problem with the Nutritional Assistance Program [known as PAN locally by its acronym in Spanish] worsens, neither we nor anyone else is prepared to serve the number of Puerto Ricans who would be impacted by this,” Laborde added. “That’s 43% of our population, 8,000 families. No one can withstand that.”

On this occasion, they served 145 employees of the FBI, 65 from ESCAPE Early Head Start in Gurabo, 110 from Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, 70 from the Homeland Security Agency, 120 from Fort Buchanan, and 308 from the Internal Revenue Service, for a total of 820.

Meanwhile, Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera, who visited the facilities, said he believes the end of the funding freeze is near.

“I believe this week and next will be crucial in determining the course of the remainder of this federal government shutdown,” he said. “It’s already the longest shutdown in history, and this is reaching unsustainable levels. I highly doubt President Trump will refuse to negotiate the reopening of the government, even after Thanksgiving. I hope that the pressure of seeing the negative impact this is having on families across the United States, the negative impact it’s having on the functioning of the government and the U.S. economy, and the fact that Thanksgiving is approaching, will put enough pressure on him to end this shutdown once and for all.”

Employees who wish to receive assistance should contact their union representatives or supervisors to be added to the list. The food boxes contain approximately two weeks’ worth of food, including rice, vegetables, beans, dried beans, milk, nuts, pears, and raisins.