Across the country, collections are popping up to help Transportation Security Administration officers who have been without full pay for more than a month due to the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, demonstrating the necessity of other organizations stepping in to feed TSA officers.

The charity World Central Kitchen, more accustomed to feeding those in war zones and disaster areas, started providing meals to Washington, D.C.-area airports after many TSA officers missed their first full paycheck. On Thursday, Feeding San Diego began distributing 400 boxes with pasta, beans and peanut butter as well as fresh produce like strawberries and potatoes to affected agents near the airport after a request from TSA and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Nonprofits are stepping in to help and coordinating closely with airports and local TSA offices because ethics rules around giving gifts to federal employees make it difficult for those affected by the shutdown to receive help directly.

“We need to work directly with the people who have direct access to these employees and get this food to them at a time and location that is most convenient to them,” Casares said.

Saturday marks the 36th day that the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down after Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

More than 120,000 DHS employees are working without pay, including roughly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers as negotiations between lawmakers and the White House on limits to immigration enforcement drag on.

The funding lapse comes just months after a 43-day government shutdown, the longest in the nation’s history, which drove long lines at food banks across the U.S. as over 700,000 federal workers worked without pay.

Rules Limit What Help TSA Officers Can Accept

For those wanting to help, it’s not as simple as going to the airport and giving cash or gift cards directly to TSA officers, who are prohibited from accepting gifts at screening locations, according to a DHS spokesperson.

But Aaron Barker, president of the AFGE Local 554 in Georgia, said TSA officer unions don’t have the same restrictions and can accept donations to distribute to their members. Barker recommends those who want to donate to feed TSA officers look up their local union district on the AFGE website, or give through their local labor council.

Read the full article about feeding TSA officers amidst the shutdown by Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Thalia Beaty, and James Pollard at AP News.