This week, roughly 800,000 federal workers missed a second paycheck as a result of the longest partial government shutdown in history.
Many organizations and community leaders have been pitching in to do whatever they can to help the thousands of families impacted, offering payment assistance, discounts and food to those in need. On Jan. 11, Atlanta radio show host Willie Moore Jr. launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist federal workers and their families with paying their bills and buying groceries. In just two weeks, the campaign that Moore created with the staff of his eponymous radio show raised more than $60,000, surpassing the campaign's initial $50,000 goal.
"This is a great time to make a forever mark in the memory of so many in need," Moore wrote on the campaign's GoFundMe page. "Honestly, I know that we have all prayed about it however now it's time to do something about it."
Earlier this week, Moore used funds from the campaign to surprise a furloughed employee with more than $1,000 to help pay her bills, according to local Atlanta station 11Alive.
"Bill collectors, they don't want to hear about the shutdown," said Monica Davis, who said she's worked for the IRS for seven years. "It has been absolutely torturing."
Davis said she planned to use the money to make a car payment and pay her rent. She's also launched her own GoFundMe page to help other families make ends meet.
"I set it up with the hopes of just helping in any way for anybody, whether it be to get gas in your car, whether it be to pay a bill or two or even three," she told 11Alive.
Earlier in January, GoFundMe spokesperson Katherine Cichy told CNBC that since the start of the government shutdown on Dec. 21, roughly 1,800 campaign pages had been created by federal workers looking to raise money for rent, food and student loan payments. As of Jan. 16, she said the campaigns had raised over $400,000.
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