‘We’ll still continue to serve’: Many federal employees turn to volunteering during shutdown

The ongoing government shutdown, which became the longest one in history on Wednesday, has inflicted financial pain on federal employees, who aren’t being paid, and left many workers furloughed. Some have turned their attention to volunteering in the absence of their normal public service roles. 

During the weekend of Oct. 24, more than 60 federal employees helped conduct at least 10 service projects across the country as part of the “Service Through Shutdown” initiative. One individual who helped plan these projects said they were brought about by feds who generally were connected with each other through shared former coworkers. 

“Someone I know through somebody else…was interested in getting this off the ground and started a couple group chats to see who might be interested in helping,” they said, preferring not to be named due to fears that talking to the media could bring adverse consequences to their agency. “That's where the conversation started, and then we built it out from there through our own contacts.”

The service projects benefited organizations like a food pantry in Los Angeles, a community center in Colorado and a nonprofit working to promote access to healthy food in Washington, D.C. The planners also hope that the volunteer opportunities help federal employees stay connected with each other during the shutdown and practice using their public service “muscles.” 

“We're still interested in serving. We'll still continue to serve,” the federal worker said. “We want to make sure people know that we're here for our communities regardless of the circumstances of the government.”

They added that projects will continue on a rolling basis with the hope that they’ll be completed before the shutdown ends or shortly thereafter. 

Additionally, federal employee groups have used recent protests to collect items for food banks. 27 UNIHTED, a group of former National Institutes of Health employees founded earlier this year, and wellfed, a social impact startup to help former government workers, held a food drive on Oct. 18 in conjunction with a “No Kings” rally outside of NIH headquarters. 

Those groups and others similarly collected food during an Oct. 30 protest outside of the Agriculture Department over the Trump administration’s refusal to use money in a contingency fund to continue providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the shutdown. Following a court order, officials have since said that they would use the emergency fund to partially cover SNAP benefits.

Leaders of the groups said that between the two events they collected more than 1,000 pounds of food for Washington, D.C.-area food banks.  

“Government employees love helping the community. Even though they're like ‘how do I pay for my stuff?,’ they're still offering to help,” said Anna Culbertson of 27 UNIHTED. “I think there's something really beautiful to that.” 

Taproot — an organization that connects volunteers with professional backgrounds to help nonprofits in areas like marketing, human resources and technology — also has previously reported that there’s been an uptick in former federal employees using its platform to find opportunities. 

Even as furloughed feds volunteer during the shutdown, many of them are seeking assistance from nonprofits. 

Wellfed has always provided free food during in-person events, but its founders said that offering meals has taken on an increased importance since the funding lapse. 

“Food is a wonderful way to show care and support, and especially now, basic needs are not being met for a lot of folks,” said Drew Tye Ruby-Howe. “So we are making a point to consider and design our program with basic needs and community care at the center.” 

Wellfed and Former Gov, a website that similarly is helping former feds transition out of government, both have expanded their programming since the shutdown to explicitly include furloughed workers. Some examples of the types of events they sponsor include personal finance workshops, mental health sessions as well as opportunities to make community connections. 

Culbertson, who helped create a public spreadsheet to crowdsource resources for furloughed feds during the shutdown, said that the document is being updated daily with new offerings. 

Likewise, MyFEDBenefits has created a map of organizations that are providing assistance during the funding lapse. 

The Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund said that it has had to pause applications for its shutdown aid but is expecting to provide at least 7,000 grants worth $150 to government workers.