Tupelo food pantry is helping feed government workers.

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- Today is day 27 of the partial government shutdown, and many people are feeling the effects.

With paychecks not going out, concern continues to grow about how to take care of their families.

“How will I feed my family,” is a question on the minds of some federal workers. Thursday, the St. Luke Food Pantry in Tupelo came up with an answer.

As the partial government shutdown drags on, many federal workers are starting to worry about where their next meal will come from.

To help out those in need some local organizations are taking action.

“We just decided it was time for us to open the doors to all the federal employees that are furloughed, just because we understand that there is a great need and they’ve been a long time without a check and not getting paid. So, we understand there’s a need for them to have some food. We just want to be a resource for them and help them get through this time until the federal government gets things straightened out,” said Jason Martin.

Jason Martin says he understands the struggles these families are going through.

“That’s the thing if they don’t have an income some of them may still be working. A lot of them are required to be at work, and they’re not getting paid its kinda hard to work as hard to think about taking care of a family when your stomach’s growling,” said Martin.

And since his food bank has the resources, he wants to do all he can to give them a helping hand.

“It’s just the right thing to do there’s people that are hungry, and there’s no need for that to happen, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of food available and able to make that available to them,” said Martin.

And some area workers are already taking him up on the invitation.

Their reaction helped reassure Martin that he made the right the decision.

“They have been very grateful for the food and just thankful for that. We just put the word out there yesterday that we were going to be doing this, we’ve already had a tremendous response from that. So, we’re really thankful for it so for everybody that shared that to help us get the word out,” said Martin.

Martin says the St. Luke Food pantry will be open to federal workers until the government gets reestablished. They are open every Thursday from 8 a.m. – noon.