A furloughed food inspector and a group of local business owners are collecting items for care packages for federal employees working without getting paid.
Dozens of federal workers in North Texas are about to get a special delivery in the mail.
It's part of a donation drive started by a government employee who hasn't been paid herself in more than a month.
Anne Powell went to the owner of Cookies in Bloom in McKinney with the idea: Care packages for the 68 local United States Department of Agriculture, food inspectors currently working without getting paid.
Powell has been a USDA food inspector for 33 years.
“It’s very demoralizing for a lot of inspectors. They’ve voiced they feel like they aren’t heard, they aren’t seen,” Powell explained.
Carolyn Selby, owner of Cookies in Bloom, bakes cookie bouquets by day and runs a post office out of the back of her shop.
Selby leaned on fellow local business owners for donations for the care packages.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
So far, she’s collected bath bombs, popcorn, crackers and candy to include in the packages. Cookies, of course, will be included too.
The packages will be shipped out over the weekend.
“It’s such a huge group that is currently not being paid so we thought if we could take a little slice of that pie and put a smile on their face, it was well worth it,” Selby said.
