Former North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and a coalition of local volunteers are organizing a food drive Saturday to support Transportation Security Administration workers at Charleston International Airport who are working without pay during the ongoing partial federal government shutdown.

The effort follows an earlier outreach push by Charleston-based pilots who partnered with D’Allesandro’s Pizza to deliver free lunches to TSA officers at the airport. That gesture aimed to lift morale among federal workers who are required to report to their posts despite receiving no paychecks while Congress and the White House remain deadlocked over the federal budget.

TSA officers are classified as essential employees, meaning they cannot walk off the job even as the shutdown stretches on. For workers living paycheck to paycheck, the financial strain builds quickly. Groceries, rent, car payments and utility bills do not pause because Congress cannot pass a spending bill.

The food drive gives residents a concrete way to help neighbors who have few options while the political standoff continues in Washington.

Summey, who led North Charleston for more than two decades before leaving office, has deep ties to the airport community. Charleston International sits within North Charleston’s borders and serves as one of the region’s largest economic engines. The workers who move through its security checkpoints each morning are, in many cases, longtime residents of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Community-organized relief efforts like this one have become a familiar feature of extended federal shutdowns. When government funding lapses, the burden of supporting essential federal employees often falls on local businesses, nonprofits and neighbors willing to show up with groceries and hot meals.

D’Allesandro’s Pizza stepping in alongside local pilots reflects a broader pattern of small businesses absorbing costs to support workers caught in a political dispute they have no power to resolve. Restaurant owners and aviation workers share something with TSA officers, which is direct exposure to the airport’s economic rhythms. A disrupted workforce affects the entire airport ecosystem.

TSA officers screen more than just passengers. They provide the security infrastructure that keeps commercial aviation functioning. If enough workers call in sick or simply cannot afford to keep showing up, flight operations feel the consequences. Charleston’s airport has seen significant passenger growth in recent years, and any disruption to screening capacity ripples outward to airlines, travelers and local businesses that depend on tourism and business travel.

Details on where to drop off food donations and what items are most needed were being coordinated through the organizers ahead of Saturday’s event. Nonperishable goods typically top the list for drives like this, since they can be stored and distributed over time rather than consumed immediately.

For TSA workers, the practical value of a well-stocked pantry can stretch a paycheck, or substitute for one, during the weeks when federal direct deposits stop arriving. The psychological value matters too. Knowing that neighbors recognize the sacrifice of showing up every day for no pay carries real weight.

What Summey and the community volunteers are doing Saturday is not a solution to the underlying problem. Only a federal spending agreement can restore paychecks to the thousands of TSA officers working without compensation across the country. But it is a direct, local response to a crisis that Washington has so far failed to resolve.

Charleston has a history of rallying around workers and institutions when outside forces create hardship. That same instinct appears to be driving Saturday’s effort, from the pizza delivered to the checkpoint lines to the canned goods being collected for officers to take home.

Whether the shutdown ends in days or drags on for weeks, the workers at Charleston International will keep arriving for their shifts. Saturday’s food drive is the community’s way of making sure they do not do so alone.

Residents looking to contribute should follow updates from the organizers for confirmed drop-off locations and times ahead of the Saturday event.