Food Bank

Payback: TSA workers set up food banks, by meals for airport employees

TSA, , , ,

Updating this story as new examples arrive.

During the partial shutdown of the federal government in 2019, many TSA employees continued to show up for work despite missing paychecks.

To help them out, airport employees, airlines and airport concessionaires around the country joined with social service agencies and the local community to stock pantries with food and goods.

Now at some airports, TSA workers are returning the favor by setting up food pantries and special meals for airport employees who have had hours cut or who have been put out of work because there are so few passengers in airports.

Here’s what’s happening at Portland International Airport (PDX).

TSA employees at Dulles International Airport (IAD) have set up a food pantry for airport workers.

And at T.F. Green International Airport (PVD) in Rhode Island, TSA officers chipped in and bought pizza dinners – twice so far – for their fellow airport workers, including wheelchair attendants and airline employees.

Courtesy TSA

We’ll update this list of good-deeds as we hear of my examples.

In a world full of lemons, Reno-Stead Airport hands out asparagus

Food, ,

So many people are out of work right now and not sure how they’ll pay bills.

So it’s encouraging to see Reno-Stead Airport stepping up to help out the Food Bank in its community.

Like many other communities, in just the past two weeks, the food bank in Reno has seen a 30-50% increase in need.

So on Friday, Reno-Stead Airport, the 5,000-acre general aviation facility of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, served as drive-through Mobile Harvest food distribution site to support those affected by COVID-19.

In just a few hours, the drive-through airport food bank served 417 clients, giving each a bag filled with milk, lettuce, tomatoes, apples and asparagus and a dry-goods box of rice, beans, canned goods and peanut butter.

If you hear of other airports helping out their communities in creative ways right now, please let us know so we can share those stories.