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TSA employee who got help from Spokane food bank: 'I never thought I’d be here'

On a typical day around noon, Anthony Scott would be leaving the Spokane Airport after his TSA shift. Tuesday he left work at that time, but not to head home. Instead, he came to a Second Harvest Food Bank to pick up food for his family.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Friday will mark the second paycheck that federal employees will miss if the government shutdown continues.

Since their first missed paycheck, many workers have been trying to figure out how to make ends meet.

On a typical day around noon, Anthony Scott would be leaving the airport after his TSA shift at the Spokane Airport.

Tuesday he left work at that time but not to head home. Instead, he came to a Second Harvest Food Bank to pick up food for his family.

“This is good for us that are struggling a little bit,” Scott said.

Scott walked down the line of tables, grabbing fruits, bread and bags of pasta and putting them into his cart.

“I’ve got the fruit in there for my kids…and yogurts,” he said. “Those are hard to come by, because they like those, but they aren’t really an essential,” he said.

Scott has three children and said since he stopped getting paid, things have been tight.

He said he’s tried to shield his children from the situation.

Before coming to the food bank, he said he told them, “Dad has to go to the store to get other stuff.”

Clark Lane, another TSA officer, was also in line at the food bank.

“Both my wife and I work for TSA, so both of us are working without a paycheck at this time,” Lane said.

He said, with Friday approaching, he’s concerned there will be another empty paycheck coming in the mail.

RELATED: Furloughed, unpaid aviation employees 'engage travelers' at Spokane Airport

“Mortgages are due the first of February, and that’s what we’re worried about, how we’re going to come up with our rents or our mortgages when we haven’t gotten a paycheck all month long,” he said.

But he said the food bank was a blessing in that it took away one bill he has to worry about.

“Now that I don’t have to pay for some food, I might have gas to get to work the next day, which is required of us,” he said.

TSA workers weren’t the only federal employees in line at the food bank. Workers from the Washington Department of Ecology were also there filling their carts with meals to prepare.

RELATED: VERIFY: Will furloughed workers be laid off?

RELATED: Coast Guard families in Washington struggling through government shutdown

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