Long Island Cares distributes food to federal workers who aren't being paid during government shutdown

Rose Voskinarin, an analyst who has worked with the Treasury Department for more than 15 years, is trying hard to make ends meet.

The weekslong federal government shutdown has meant that Voskinarin has not seen a full paycheck since early October. Voskinarin, a widow of roughly eight years, has three adult children attending college — two of whom live at her home in Huntington Station. The shutdown, she said, is forcing her family to forge a fragile balance between high grocery prices, gas and other bills.

“It’s hard,” said Voskinarin, 52, after placing boxes of food in her truck at an emergency hunger relief event for federal workers on Thursday.

“I still need a roof over my head with the kids and stuff,” she later said. “My bills. There’s only so much that creditors can do.”

As Democrats and Republicans duel over health care subsidies, the government’s closure has left many Long Island federal workers without pay — and diminished means to pay for essentials like food, experts say. Roughly 30,000 Long Islanders work for the federal government, Newsday previously reported.

On Thursday, federal workers got a reprieve in the form of an emergency food distribution event from Long Island Cares/The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank at the Center for Community Engagement in Hauppauge. More than 100 federal workers signed up to receive food like cereal, potatoes and cabbage. Some of the public servants who trickled in worked at the Social Security Administration. Others were members of the military, some wearing their uniforms.

Nearly all the families that preregistered for the event had never been to a food pantry before, Long Island Cares officials said.

“So many people are one crisis away from needing a food pantry, and we’re in a crisis right now,” said Katherine Fritz, president and CEO of Long Island Cares. Fritz added that the nonprofit decided to host the food distribution event for federal workers after hearing from local pantries about the need.

During the government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to terminate government workers, a move that was temporarily halted by a federal judge, The Associated Press reported.

At the same time, New York officials have warned that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, once called food stamps, might be postponed should the gridlock continue into November, Newsday reported. SNAP is used by more than 160,000 Long Island residents.

“What we are expecting is a surge of food insecurity on Long Island,” Fritz said, later noting that food insecurity “doesn’t mean that people don’t have any food in the refrigerator.”

“It’s that they’re not sure if they could put a meal on their table tomorrow, or the next day or next week,” she said. “That’s what food insecurity means.”

Glenodean Kelly, a logistics and supply sergeant in the Army who works on Long Island, is waiting until Nov. 1 to see if she is going to be paid.

“In this time of uncertainty, prayer works,” she said as she picked up items for herself and one of her pregnant co-workers.

Still, if she doesn’t get paid, Kelly said she is cutting back on certain expenses like subscriptions. “Just doing the little things to see if I can” make it by, she said.

Maryellis Smith, a Patchogue resident who works at the Social Security Administration, received about a week’s worth of food at Thursday’s distribution.

Smith said the event was uplifting. She said there is often a stigma that federal workers are lazy and undeserving, an idea she counters by saying, “We are people like everybody else.”

“If we don’t exist, then people won’t have the … things that we provide to them,” she said.

NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger contributed to this story.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.