Local organizations help furloughed federal workers with food assistance during government shutdown
Both Long Island Cares and Island Harvest say it's important to help workers who are missing paychecks.
More Stories
Long Island Cares and Island Harvest teamed up on Monday at Farmingdale State College to hand out food to hundreds federal workers who have gone without pay during the government shutdown.
"We need to take care of federal employees; they shouldn't be standing online for food. Our senior citizens shouldn't be at risk of losing an opportunity to eat good, healthy food and children should go to school on a Monday morning having eaten over the weekend," says Randi Shubin Dresner, Island Harvest president and CEO.
Bayshore resident Blanca Colon has worked for the IRS for over a decade. She's never needed food assistance before.
"It's really hard," she says. "We have some savings but the savings is not going to be enough to cover the whole bills."
She's grateful for local organizations coming together to help.
"At least we have some food on the table, and at least someone is helping us," says Colon.
Others feel the same.
"It helps greatly. Greatly. Especially when there's no income at this point," says Islip resident Jessica Valdes.
Valdes is a civilian with the army reserve. She's been furloughed for over a month.
"There's no money coming in. We have bills to pay that take care of our families," says Valdes.
Both Long Island Cares and Island Harvest say it's important to help workers who are missing paychecks.
"There are people that are hurting," says Katherine Fritz, president of Long Island Cares.
