When staff members arrived at their Armed Services YMCA food pantry distribution location near Fort Hood, Texas, at 5 a.m. Thursday, they found a line of military families stretched around the side of the building.

“That’s not happened ever. We had a 34% increase this week over past weeks,” said Dorene Ocamb, ASYMCA chief brand and development officer. The doors at the organization’s Harker Heights location opened at 6:30 a.m. to distribute free food, but there were so many people, some had to wait in line outside for safety reasons, she said.

“We expected an increase, but didn’t quite expect this,” Ocamb said.

The government shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Troops received their Oct. 1 pay, but “anxiety is high,” Ocamb said. “There’s a lot of anticipatory anxiety around pot

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