A line forms at a DC-area food bank on October 21, 2025. CNN

Summer Kerksick waited in line for two hours Tuesday to receive a box of canned and dry goods at a food bank event for federal workers amid the ongoing government shutdown .

“With my rent due next week, I can take anything I can get,” Kerksick, a federal contractor and market research analyst with the Rural Export Center in the US Department of Commerce, told CNN.

“I haven’t gotten a paycheck this month, so the free groceries is very important, very helpful,” she added as she stood outside the event, which was organized by a DC food bank and a local religious group. “I’ve got to save every dime at this point.”

Kerksick is among the roughly 1.4 million federal employees who have been furloughed or are now working without p

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