The partial federal government shutdown has highlighted a serious problem in our country: Working families cannot always make ends meet. Nearly 80% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, including a large number of federal employees and contractors. We know that furloughed workers and contractors and those working without pay are struggling to feed their families, and that’s not a situation anyone should be in. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina is tr

UPDATE: The government shut down has ended. UPDATE 2/15/19: • Government Funding Update: Congressional leaders have passed an agreement on a spending package that would keep the federal government open for the remainder of the current fiscal year. The measure provides a $30 million funding increase for TEFAP storage and distribution, which is essential to our food banks operations, and was a policy priority that was advocated actively by Second Harvest and Feeding America. Un

A mother sits at her kitchen table, a pile of bills before her: The water bill, the electrical bill, the daycare payment, the rent note. She is writing out the checks, maybe she is paying some online, but she is being careful with the dates on those checks—trying to make sure they line up with times when there will be money in her checking account. Sometimes, no matter how you date it, it just doesn’t add up. This scene is not an anomaly in America: As many as 78% of American