JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s day 17 of the federal government shutdown, and leaders with one local food bank say they are seeing an increase in the number of people needing assistance.
Feeding Northeast Florida says they are gearing up to order more food as they prepare extra meals for airport employees and those active-duty military members here at Naval Station Mayport. Since many are going without pay due to the government shutdown.
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“Some of the things that we have seen specific to the shutdown is really just a level of anxiety and concern around it,” said Susan King, President and CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida.
That concern over how food might get put on the table during the government shutdown has been felt by Feeding Northeast Florida. The charity is the largest food bank serving eight counties in the region.
Its president and CEO, Susan King, says they have already seen an influx of military families since the government shutdown started. They’re all looking to stock up on food.
“We’re seeing an increase, but that increase ranged anywhere from a reported 10% to as much as a 100% increase,” said King.
That growing need from federal employees and the military was seen earlier this week as Mayport Navy League’s latest military Monday food drive saw double the number of people they usually serve. Action News Jax spoke with a military family getting that assistance
“And it feels a little bit hard when you’re like kind of proud and don’t want to do those kinds of things, but you gotta do what you’ve got to do,” said Iris Macfarland, wife of a Navy sailor.
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Feeding Northeast Florida says they went out yesterday, surveying airport employees and started preparing roughly 300 meals for TSA agents at JIA, and they’re also working on getting more meals ready for active duty personnel at Mayport.
“In addition, we have ordered a food supply kind of beyond what we normally do and are going to be building 6,000 boxes that are probably about a three-meal dry box that we can provide for anybody,” said King.
They want people to know that they are here to help, but say they are counting on donations earlier this year because their funding and the amount of food products they regularly receive have been cut.
“The end of September, we were down 35%. And that’s, you know, that’s 11, 12 million dollars, I mean, 11 or 12 million pounds of food that comes to us and donated,” said King.
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