John Tollerud walked past rows and rows of thoughtfully-organized stuff at the Salvation Army thrift store in Fairbanks.
“Our store is a little bit new,” he said. “We've kind of changed things just to make sure that it works better for people, which is always nice.”
Tollerud manages the store. It’s packed with racks of winter coats, Halloween costumes, homecoming gowns, and even small kitchen appliances like microwaves. The store has a voucher program for families experiencing hardship, like the ongoing shutdown.
It’s a familiar situation for Tollerud. He was in the Army during the last government shutdown, which ended in 2019 after 35 days. He missed one paycheck.
“I was part of the group that didn't receive their paycheck, and it was rectified,” he said. “But I imagine that the longer something like this goes on, the more difficult it will be for families to afford things.”
The four-week federal government shutdown is creating growing financial pressure for military families in Alaska. While active-duty personnel received their October paychecks through a private donation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned this week that service members won't be paid after Nov. 15 if the shutdown continues — prompting more families to turn to nonprofits for help with food and bills.
Some groups around the state, like the Armed Services YMCA, are seeing increased need for essentials and assistance with bills. The organization has a marketplace on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage where service members can pick up free essentials, like groceries, hygiene products and laundry detergent.
Sarah Riffer, who directs Alaska’s Armed Services YMCA, said this month has been busy.
“The week that we were unsure if our service members were going to get paid, we probably saw more feet come into our marketplace than what I have historically ever seen,” she said.
The organization assists military families nationwide. Last week, their national branch told ABC News that their food banks across the country have seen up to a 75% jump in demand. Riffer said many families are anxious about how they’ll get through the colder weeks and months ahead if the shutdown continues.
“I think that's really difficult for our service members to handle,” she said. “People are really nervous and they're unsure, and we're going into a time of year where heating bills are more and electric bills are more, and there's so many factors in our state that are unique that it just causes a lot of pause.”
Fairbanks Community Food Bank volunteers also say they’ve seen traffic spike this month. But it’s hard for them to quantify whether that’s due to inflation, natural disasters, the government shutdown, or all of the above.
Lori Fruwirth, who volunteers with the American Legion Post 11 in Fairbanks, is on the front lines of the problem. She said her organization isn’t just reaching out to active-duty service members and their families — they’re also trying to support veterans in the community during the shutdown.
“Most veterans that I've met are very proud, and they don't come to us with hat in hand,” Fruwirth said. “They're willing to pay the price for the rest of us here in our country. So, I firmly believe that we need to do all we can to help our veterans and our military and their families and help support them during this time.”
While active-duty military members have been paid during this shutdown, that’s not true for many civilian workers or private contractors on military bases. According to the federal data, more than 5,000 Alaskans work for the Department of Defense in a civilian role.
That group includes John Haddix, an Army veteran who now manages fish and game on Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. He and his family have reserves to get by while he’s not getting paid, but he’s worried about the people he works with.
“Maybe even more frustrating to me is the newer employees that are living paycheck to paycheck,” Haddix said. “They're GS-07s making $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and they're furloughed and not getting paid, and they don't have a backup.”
Haddix said he’s even more worried about the possibility that he and his coworkers won’t get paid at all for that time. The Trump administration recently threatened to withhold back pay for some furloughed federal workers when the shutdown lifts.
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