News

IAM offers to help furloughed federal employees

By Lightning Reports, Published: January 15, 2019

Interfaith Assistance Ministry, the largest provider of crisis services in Henderson County, is extending its food pantry and basic emergency services to Henderson County federal government employees who are being impacted by the partial government shutdown. Affected workers will need to provide their federal government ID to receive food from IAM’s pantry.

The ongoing partial government shutdown has officially become the longest running shut-down in history. Approximately 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers in the United States have been furloughed or deemed as an essential employee and are required to work without pay. Over one-third of the federal government workforce did not receive paychecks last week and have been out of work for 25 days. The lack of a paycheck is placing many federal workers in dire financial situations.

“Interfaith Assistance Ministry wants to assist our struggling residents who work for the federal government during this unprecedented time of need,” said Elizabeth Willson Moss, IAM’s executive director. “Please share this information with any federal employees you may know. We will give them a hand-up to help them survive this financial crisis.”

In Henderson County, federal workers are employed at the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site, the Social Security Administration office, as federal marshals, airport security and others.

IAM, located at 310 Freeman St., just past the Blue Ridge Mall, provides services from 9 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.