When staff members arrived at their Armed Services YMCA food pantry distribution location near Fort Hood, Texas, at 5 a.m. Thursday, they found a line of military families stretched around the side of the building.
“That’s not happened ever. We had a 34% increase this week over past weeks,” said Dorene Ocamb, ASYMCA chief brand and development officer. The doors at the organization’s Harker Heights location opened at 6:30 a.m. to distribute free food, but there were so many people, some had to wait in line outside for safety reasons, she said.
“We expected an increase, but didn’t quite expect this,” Ocamb said.
The government shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Troops received their Oct. 1 pay, but “anxiety is high,” Ocamb said. “There’s a lot of anticipatory anxiety around potentially losing a paycheck.”
It’s unknown whether the shutdown will last long enough to affect service members’ Oct. 15 paycheck.
Ocamb said families are being proactive about their preparations in case there’s a prolonged shutdown.
“My message to any military family today is: Go out and seek out food pantry help. It may help alleviate a line item in their budget,” Ocamb said, allowing families to have more money to use toward other expenses like rent, mortgage payments or car payments.
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The food distributions in Killeen are held at various locations on Thursdays and Saturdays, and normally, food supplies run out around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. On Thursday, food had run out by 10 a.m. Access to the distribution is limited to active duty families until 10 a.m.; veteran families are allowed after that. Active duty in uniform are served first at 6:30 a.m.
Hundreds of military families visited the free food distribution event at ASYMCA’s Harker Heights location Thursday, according to the organization.
While the Armed Services YMCA generally focuses on junior enlisted families, it doesn’t limit food assistance by rank.
“Food is one of those basic needs. If you show up and need food, we’re going to serve you,” Ocamb said.
Families are allowed to take 25 pounds of food, excluding frozen food and produce. They can choose a bag of frozen protein and as much produce as they want. They’re also allowed to choose the food they want, in an effort to prevent waste. There are shelf-stable foods, as well as some dairy, alongside fresh and frozen meats.
Although ASYMCA doesn’t normally carry diapers at this pantry location, they brought in boxes to give away Thursday, and there were many mothers with young children and pregnant mothers there, according to Ocamb. As ASYMCA gathers more information and resources, Ocamb said, she expects they’ll distribute more diapers and wipes in the coming weeks.
While Killeen already has two food pantry distribution events each week, other locations are working to increase the frequency of their distributions. For example, San Diego’s ASYMCA is working to increase its events from twice a month to weekly. And some installations that offer walk-in food pantries, such as Norfolk, Virginia, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, are working to increase their food supplies to meet needs.
Armed Forces YMCA has 22 food distribution locations across the United States, including two in Killeen. If there isn’t an Armed Services YMCA branch nearby, Ocamb suggests checking out FoodFinder.us, a tool that helps search for food pantries by ZIP code nationwide.
ASYMCA is also allowing parents to defer paying for child care at their child development centers if the shutdown starts to affect military pay. The child development centers will collect payment when military pay is restored.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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