Credit: Salvation Army West via Flickr/CC2.0

Federal workers can get bus passes and electric bill waivers as well as food at the Tampa International Airport pantry. Credit: Salvation Army West via Flickr/CC2.0
Typically, it's only jobs like cashiers a big box retailers, or journalists, where it's not easy to make ends meet and you find yourself in need of a little help from the local food pantry, but as the federal shutdown looms on (Mine was the best shutdown! Best ever! We had the biggest shutdown! MAGA!), federal workers find themselves in need of assistance, too.

Which is why we think it's pretty wonderful that Tampa International Airport opened a food pantry for unpaid federal workers. The United Way, TECO, Duke Energy and HART all contributed to the pantry.

According to Bay News 9, within the first hour of its opening, roughly 60 workers took advantage of the pantry.

Between U.S. Customs, TSA and the FAA, Tampa International has roughly 700 federal workers not receiving a paycheck because of the shutdown.

"We’ve got food available for them, bus passes, waivers for their electrical bills, anything we can do to help out where we’re trying to do that this week," Emily Nipps, airport spokesperson, told Bay News 9.

One thing we can say: We don't know if America is "great again" yet, but Tampa Bay is already pretty great.

Subscribe to our weekly Do This newsletter and stay in-the-know.

This article appears in Jan 10-17, 2019.

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving...