'Tidal Wave': Hundreds Of Coast Guard Families Show Up To Pop-Up Boston Food Pantry

With many federal workers now losing hope that they'll get a paycheck this week, stress is mounting. But so are some efforts to help the hundreds of thousands affected by the ongoing shutdown — including about 8,000 in Massachusetts.

In Boston this week, a pop-up food pantry opened for men and women of the Coast Guard, the only branch of the armed services working without pay.

Coasties, as they're called, who usually rush to rescue others in peril, stepped up to help their own, forming a bucket brigade to ferry 30,000 pounds of groceries off trucks and onto shelves in the corner of a cafeteria. They stocked everything from milk to medicine, and cereal to celery, all free for the taking.

Don Cox, president of the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation, which is running the pantry, says nearly 400 families stopped in to help themselves to food in the first two days it was open. The pantry, called the Empowerment Center, is supported by local businesses and foundations including Ocean State Job Lot, the Patriots foundation, the Greater Boston Food Bank as well as by individual contributions to GoFundMe page set up by the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation. Cox says an existing pantry for military families on Cape Cod is handing out more in two days than it usually does in a month.