Food bank operator says US shutdown ‘devoid of humanity’ and supply will run dry

The Star

Vehicles stretched around Overpeck County Park in Leonia in the United States where Bergen County and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey distributed emergency food boxes to federal workers and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients hit hard by the government shutdown which enters its 38th day.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00I'm so thankful that she was able to come down and assist me because it's a lot of people who

00:21don't have the assistance and it's hard to try to depend on other people to help you. I'm such a

00:28very independent you know I try to help anybody else in need the best way I can and it's very hard

00:34for me to ask for help so when this came I said mom can you of course you know her answer without

00:39a doubt I'll come and help you and assist you but I'm thankful that I have this opportunity to be

00:44able to do this honestly speaking because we don't know what will happen within the next couple weeks

00:49month maybe within the next year. When she asked me there was no doubt I'm a substitute preschool

00:57teacher now I was a full-time preschool teacher for 18 years I've been subbing I'm going in my

01:03second year of subbing and we got here earlier and we parked to the side for about five ten minutes

01:09and she said no let's go back around when we came back around 50 almost 100 people were before us

01:17we're number 98 I said can you believe it we could have been number 50 something if we had

01:23there came right in but we said we'll wait you know give people an opportunity you know to get

01:29online and get their receivement of this nourishment so we weren't in a rush long as we're on the line

01:37we feel good. It's horrific what you know what's going on you know but thank God that even our country

01:45like Bergen County is doing this but it's awful you know well I still still know you may not put

01:53that in there I support President Trump and what's going on so let's get let's open up the government

01:58it's a clean bill. The problem is this is not going to be sustainable if this shutdown goes on for very

02:03long I mean this everything that we're spending right now is sort of over and above what we had

02:07budgeted for the year and so it's just really important that you know we sort of figure out a way

02:11to get people the help they need. We are so grateful to be partnering with the Community Food

02:15Bank in New Jersey to distribute to 2,000 families who are on SNAP or who are federally furloughed

02:21employees a box of fresh produce and a box of self-stable food to tide them through this really

02:27stressful and trying time you know there are it's estimated about 43,000 residents 25,499 households

02:35in Bergen County you know that are are on SNAP benefits that's what keeps me up at night that's what has

02:41been for the last three weeks as this has been a political football as we seem to be having

02:46inaction and this as a targeting our most vulnerable it's just devoid of humanity.

02:52I received a notice on October 1st around 6 in the morning letting me know that I was furloughed

03:03and they said obviously report do your shutdown operations and then you need to go home and you're

03:10not allowed to access your computers. I can't pay my bills. I don't know how to balance my bills because

03:16how long are we going to go determines how long my money will last. You know I'm struggling. My

03:23children are struggling. Our relationships are struggling. It's hard to balance everything. My

03:30daughter has a medication that she's on on a daily basis and I have to consider that and I have to

03:37worry about that too and how am I going to pay for the appointment and the medication and everything

03:44else and that's not a place a mom likes to be in so it's it's it's hard. Priorities are groceries.

03:53They're insurance. They're keeping a roof over their head. Keeping the lights on. Making sure those

04:00necessities are are taken care of but if this goes on much longer I don't know if we'll be able to continue

04:07that path.

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