Mass. Nonprofit Ready To Feed Coast Guard Families If Government Shuts Down Again

Coast Guard Families Affected By Gov't Shutdown Offered Meals From California Food Bank — A U.S. Coast Guard spouse looks through packaged food during a food giveaway on January 19, 2019 in Novato, California. As the partial government shutdown enters its fourth week, an estimated 150 U.S. Coast Guard families in the San Francisco Bay Area, who are currently not being paid, received free groceries during an event organized by the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and the North Bay Coast Guard Spouses Club.

Anna Kusmer is a radio producer for WGBH Radio and a journalist based in Boston. She previously worked at KQED in San Francisco. She is also a freelance science and health writer with stories appearing in PBS, NPR, Rewire.News and Atlas Obscura, among other places.

November 17, 2019

A Massachusetts-based nonprofit that fed Coast Guard families during last year's 35-day-long government shutdown said it is prepared to do so again if this month's budget negotiations break down in Congress.

The House of Representatives is expected to pass a stopgap measure this week to avoid the government shutting down. However, it is unclear how long the measure would last, meaning a shutdown may still be possible before the end of the year.

During the last federal government shutdown, which spanned from late December to late January of this year and was the longest in U.S. history, the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation created pop-up food pantries for Coast Guard families around New England. President Don Cox said they fed over 12,000 people over 1 million pounds of food, and they’re prepared to do the same this year if necessary.

“The plan is there, it's on the shelf,” Cox said. “If we have to, we’ll pull out the book and away we go. We rent the trucks, we get the space, we pull out shelving and we feed the people that need to be fed.“

Cox said his organization is prepared to set up their mobile “empowerment centers,” which provide free food, clothing, supplies, personal hygiene products and pet supplies to federal workers. During the last shutdown, the nonprofit had emergency food pantries set up in Boston, Buzzard’s Bay, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

While last year, the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation served mainly Coast Guard members, Cox said this year they would expand their services to include any federal worker missing a paycheck.

“You know, there's a lot of people who work for the government that don't make a tremendous amount of money,” Cox said. “All it takes is one ripple on the pond to tip the boat upside down, and when that happens, someone's got to be there to assist those families.”

Congress will likely vote this week to avoid a shutdown that would occur this Thursday, when government funding is set to expire. Congressional leaders are still negotiating spending levels for 2020 fiscal bills, and without a resolution, another shutdown may occur in late December.

The Trump administration has said they are willing to sign the month-long government funding package.

At an unrelated event on Sunday, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley told WGBH News she would do everything in her power to avoid a shutdown.

“We know what this impact is on families, the sense of vulnerability and fragility that people are feeling when we are in these stop-gap situations over and over again,” Pressley said. “It impacts workers, it impacts families.”

In a statement to WGBH News, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton also said he’s working to avoid another shutdown.

“Americans expect more than a government that’s just barely able to keep the lights on,” Moulton said. “When we lurch from one potential shutdown to the next, public servants can’t count on their paychecks and the military is unable to make the long term plans required to keep us safe.”

Cox said members of the Coast Guard community have already expressed anxiety to him about another potential shutdown. He said he wants them to know that his organization is ready to spring into action no matter what happens in Washington.

“We're not going to let people who have no dog in this fight suffer because two guys in Washington can't get along,” said Cox. “That's basically what it comes down to.”

WGBH News' Saraya Wintersmith contributed to this report.