Organizations nationwide are mobilizing to assist Transportation Security Administration workers who have gone without complete paychecks for over a month during the ongoing partial government shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security.
World Central Kitchen, an organization typically known for providing meals in conflict zones and disaster-stricken areas, began delivering food to airports in the Washington, D.C. region when many TSA workers missed their initial complete paycheck. This Thursday, Feeding San Diego started handing out 400 food packages containing pasta, beans, peanut butter, and fresh items like strawberries and potatoes to affected workers near the airport following a request from TSA and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
Charitable organizations are intervening to provide assistance while coordinating closely with airports and local TSA facilities, as federal ethics regulations regarding gifts to government employees create challenges for shutdown-affected workers seeking direct aid.
Carissa Casares from Feeding San Diego explained that working with airport officials allows them to better customize their resources and response to meet TSA employees’ specific needs.
“We need to work directly with the people who have direct access to these employees and get this food to them at a time and location that is most convenient to them,” Casares said.
This Saturday will mark the 36th day that the Department of Homeland Security has remained closed after Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs Border Protection without operational changes following the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
Over 120,000 DHS workers are continuing their duties without compensation, including approximately 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers, as discussions between legislators and the White House regarding immigration enforcement limitations continue.
This funding gap occurs just months following a 43-day government closure, the nation’s longest on record, which created extensive lines at food distribution centers nationwide as more than 700,000 federal employees worked without wages.
For individuals wanting to provide assistance, simply approaching airports to give cash or gift cards directly to TSA officers isn’t possible, as they cannot accept gifts at screening areas, according to a DHS representative.
However, Aaron Barker, president of AFGE Local 554 in Georgia, explained that TSA officer unions operate under different restrictions and can receive donations for distribution to their members. Barker suggests donors locate their local union district through the AFGE website or contribute through their area labor council.
“For some people it can be life or death,” said Barker. “It’s just sad and terrible that this is happening.”
Union members have informed Barker they cannot afford utility payments or their children’s medical treatments. Some have received eviction warnings or experienced vehicle repossessions. They’re also struggling to purchase everyday necessities.
“People don’t think about the things they just naturally have in their home, like toothpaste, bathroom tissue, milk, detergent, dish liquid,” he said. “I’m sure those things are a necessity for every TSA officer.”
Still, no donation can match the effectiveness of ending the shutdown. “The first thing they want is their paycheck,” said Barker. “The money is the most immediate need.”
Operation Food Search is collaborating closely with TSA to safely provide food and establish a temporary pantry at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
The Missouri hunger relief organization’s CEO noted this marks their first time distributing directly to TSA employees at their workplace.
“It removes their need to make an extra trip and drive here,” Kristen Wild said. “So we’re really excited that the airport allowed us to directly serve right there.”
They distributed slightly more than half of their 400 prepared food packages during a 2-hour window earlier this week, Wild reported. Each package held just under $20 worth of shelf-stable items including apple sauce, pasta, rice and beans. Regulations prevent federal employees from requesting or accepting gifts or monetary items exceeding $20 if connected to their government role.
Wild mentioned she believed the $20 restriction might be suspended since they were providing food through airport-approved methods.
“We didn’t know for sure,” Wild said. “But to play it safe we just kept it right under the $20 per bag amount so there would be no challenge to it.”
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport officials managed PETA donations and local food bank deliveries Friday afternoon while stocking their private pantry for off-duty TSA personnel.
They’ve also witnessed restaurant vendors, typically focused on serving travelers, stepping forward. Airport businesses have provided discounts and contributed through TSA to pay for complete shifts’ meals, according to airport spokesperson Perry Cooper.
“You know a lot of these people,” Cooper said. “You see faces and that throughout the day as you’re wandering through. And then to realize that some of these folks are here and they’re not getting paid, you know, really tugs at your heart to think what’s a way that we can help.”
The airport community’s assistance supplements approximately $6,000 they’ve collected in cash and gift cards plus an additional $10,000 in food and household items, Cooper reported. This includes contributions from the air traffic controllers’ labor union, whose positions remain unaffected by this partial shutdown but who recognize the stress of working without compensation from complete government closures.
More than 460 individuals collected fresh produce when local organization Food Lifeline delivered a truck load last Friday, Cooper stated. Most participants were TSA employees, Cooper noted, though some attendees might have been homeless individuals. Containers filled with pineapples and broccoli covered folding tables along the airport’s primary roadway.
Frequent flyers like Musie Hidad said he considers the TSA agents working without payment each time he passes through security.
“The work they are doing is serious and they aren’t getting paid for it,” said Hidad, an Amarillo, Texas, resident, who was traveling to Columbus, Ohio, for work. “My heart goes out to them.”
