In efforts to support military members and civilian employees at Scott Air Force Base during the government shutdown, a restaurant has served at least 600 free meals and a business association has collected $15,000 in donations.
The Metro East military base employs roughly 13,000 people counting active-duty members, civilians and contractors. While the service members got paid this week, roughly half of civilians at military installations had been furloughed. At Scott, there are 5,300 civilian government employees.
Soulcial Kitchen, a restaurant and food truck park in Swansea, has been giving away free meals, along with other partner restaurants, since the shutdown began at the start of the month. Founder John Michel, a retired Air Force general, said his team is planning to add food trucks on Fridays because there has been a growing demand as the shutdown lingers on.
“We may take the uniform off, but we will always have an affinity to those who continue to serve and their families,” Michel said. “It's the right thing to do, even though, right now, we're unfortunately seeing a breakdown in leadership. We see it as an opportunity to exert just our own ability to help fill the gap and demonstrate what servant leadership looks like in our own community.”
In addition to cash, the Leadership Council of Southwest Illinois, a business association and economic development group, has solicited numerous donations of diapers, baby formula, non-perishable food items, hygiene products and gas cards to support the service members and civilians who may need help.
“These people who go to work at Scott Air Force Base, they're more than that. They're our friends,” said Kyle Anderson, the council’s executive director. “They're the same people we go to church with. They're our kids' classmates. They're our neighbors.”
The Leadership Council has not yet delivered donations to the base. When leaders at the base feel they’re needed in the near future, the business association will make the delivery, Anderson said.
“I just know that we need to be there early and often,” he said. “If this comes to where they don't get paid, we need to be there.”
Michel, who served part of his time at Scott, said this shutdown has been different. Others have been a lot longer, like the 35-day shutdown at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. But payments for military service members hadn’t been a question before.
“It never really came down to a potential for a prolonged period without pay,” Michel said. “So this one seems a little more acute.”
Missing a paycheck down the road comes at a time when food insecurity is already a problem at military bases. A 2019 survey by the federal government found nearly a quarter of active-duty members did not have adequate access to nutritious food in the prior year.
While it was welcome news that active-duty members got paid this week, there’s worry among the military community that their financial picture may get worse before Congress can reach a compromise, Michel said.
“I do think there's concern that this is now going to be much more concerning in a couple of weeks,” he said.
