With bills piling up and demand rising, volunteers in the Third Ward ramp up food distributions.<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2014 On Friday night in the Third Ward, Richard Andrews pulled his Wheel One Mobile Pantry <\/a>truck into a parking lot off Martin Luther King Boulevard and began unloading boxes of food \u2014 this time with federal employees in mind.<\/p>\n Even though the government shutdown ended earlier this week, Andrews said many workers are still digging out from weeks of missed paychecks<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPostal employees, we even got a call from somebody with the IRS. Everybody is affected by the shutdown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Andrews, who started the mobile pantry nearly six years ago during the COVID-19 shutdown, said the need for food assistance has only grown since then. The pantry usually opens every Saturday, \u201crain, sleet or shine,\u201d he said, but this week, he added an extra day to meet the heightened demand.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you have bills that are due from almost two months ago,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cYou have people who are behind on bills and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n While the evening was set aside to help federal workers, Andrews emphasized that no one is turned away.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people are disabled, they come by Metro, and we service everybody over here,\u201d he said. \u201cJust like those ladies we saw over there, two elderly women with a small child. I mean, how could you turn them away? We see that a lot. We turn no one down.\u201d<\/p>\n