Organizations in Alpena band together to help local federal employees during shutdown

Alpena, Mich. —As the government shutdown heads into another week, some federal workers in Alpena are receiving some big help.

The United Way, along with the Salvation Army of Alpena and the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan are all coming together to make sure no federal workers go without offering free food boxes and providing resources for bills.

“We just looked at the situation at hand going on in our area and realized a lot of people in our area are hurting and we thought what can we do,” Executive Director of the United Way of Northeast Michigan, Sonya Thomas said.

Here in northeast Michigan the shutdown hits hard. The “sunrise side” has employees from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Agriculture just to name a few.

“I’m sure they didn’t expect this. We just came through the holiday. I’m sure they thought it was just going to happen for a week or so and now here we are in week five,” Thomas said.

Thomas said she was inspired to help the local workers because she too was hit with the unexpected. In addition to receiving free food boxes, furloughed workers can stop by the Salvation Army of Alpena to receive food items for their pets.

For utility bills and other unforeseen issues there’s a service called 2–1–1. To make arrangements to pick up your food boxes contact the United Way at 989–354–2221.