BELLE CHASSE, La. — It's been five weeks of anxiety and stress for hundreds-of-thousands of federal workers who continue to endure the partial government shutdown, including the US Coast Guard, the only military branch that's working without pay.
"I've been able to get some baby food and some boxed pasta," Diana Pitts said.
Pitts is the wife of a Coast Guard member. And Eyewitness News met her recently when she came to pick up some essentials from a food pantry set up for unpaid federal workers in Belle Chase.
"You know, there's a lot of people who don't like to go to food pantries,” she said.
Pitts is one of them. But for now, it helps her family get through the longest partial government shutdown in history.
"We have not gotten paid at all and I think the most stressful part is just pushing our bills back,” she said. “Some companies are understanding; some companies are not understanding."
She tells us her husband is currently deployed in Texas. Meanwhile, at home in Belle Chase, she's trying to balance work and studying for nursing school with five children.
"It's even harder when your spouse is gone, cause they're not here to calm your nerves and help you,” she said.
Whereas the other military branches are funded through the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security. That’s why Pitts points out her husband is risking his life every day at work with no paycheck.
"When my husband is deployed, my oldest just steps in -- big brother, awesome superman mode," she said.
It's been hard on her children too, but she says Coast Guard families are banding together to support each other. However, it's heartbreaking that it’s come to this.
"A lot of us are living off of our savings and stuff and some of us don’t have a savings,” she said.
Once the shutdown ends, Pitts hopes her husband will be among the 800,000 federal workers getting their back pay immediately.
"But then again, it's really hard because a lot of people had to push back their bills,” she added.
So now she's also stressed about potential late fees, and there still seems to be no end in sight.