Over 800,000 federal workers & contractors in the U.S., including 5,000 San Diegans, have now missed their second paycheck due to the government shutdown.
Here are four local resources for those impacted by the current U.S. government shutdown. Look to them for aid, or consider honoring their leadership and commitment to the community by supporting their services to those in need:
- food and material goods
- finances
- utility payments
- employment.
Visit Coastal Roots Farm’s Farm Stand on Thursdays, 12 – 3 p.m. and Sundays, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and pay what you can for fresh, organic produce. CalFresh EBT also accepted.
The Farm will offer additional produce boxes on Tuesdays,January 29 & February 5 from 12 – 4 p.m. furloughed government workers who are Encinitas residents with government employee identification at no cost. Available while supplies last.
Interfaith Community Services has expanded access and availability of food, employment, and housing resources for those impacted. Households of any income level are eligible for a week’s worth of groceries at no charge.
Jewish Family Service is providing supplemental groceries including non-perishables and produce, during special distribution every Tuesday, 5 – 7 p.m. until the shutdown ends.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.