'Tidal Wave': Hundreds Of Coast Guard Families Show Up To Pop-Up Boston Food Pantry

January 11, 2019 8:00 AM ET
TOVIA SMITH

With many federal workers now losing hope that they'll get a paycheck this week, stress is mounting. But so are some efforts to help the hundreds of thousands affected by the ongoing shutdown — including in Massachusetts, where about 8,000 federal workers live.

In Boston this week, a pop-up food pantry opened up for men and women of the Coast Guard, the only branch of the armed services working without pay.

Coasties, as they're called, who usually rush to rescue others in peril, stepped up to help their own, forming a bucket brigade to ferry 30,000 pounds of groceries off trucks and onto shelves in the corner of a cafeteria. They stocked everything from milk to medicine, and cereal to celery, all free for the taking.

Don Cox, president of the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation, that's running the pantry, says nearly 200 families stopped in to help themselves to food, in the first few hours it was open. At the same time, Cox says an existing pantry for military families on Cape Cod is handing out more in two days than it usually does in a month.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/01/11/684118233/tidal-wave-hundreds-of-coast-guard-families-show-up-to-pop-up-boston-food-pantry?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news