Sky Harbor accepting donations to help federal workers not getting paid during government shutdown

Phoenix Sky Harbor is asking for donations to help federal employees who did not receive a paycheck amid a partial government shutdown.

The federal government has been partially shut down since Feb. 14, preventing some federal workers, including TSA agents, from receiving their paychecks.

The airport is seeking the public’s help to provide essential supplies to workers during the shutdown. Heather Shelbrack, a spokesperson for Sky Harbor, said this is the first time the airport has called out to the public to help with donations.

“We are looking for non-perishable, pre-packaged food that can be distributed to the workers, as well as gift cards in denominations of $20 or less for items like groceries or gas,” Shelbrack said. “So think of like Fry's or Safeway gift cards, Costco, gas stations, etc.”

Shelbrack said they will not accept cash donations or generic gift cards, like visa.

“We have, we have staff there that will accept the donations and log the donations, and then they'll give them a parking validation, and then the team will be distributing these to to the federal employees,” Shelbrack said.

Donations are being collected from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday at the compassion corner outside of security checkpoint B in terminal four.

“While the airport has maintained operations and has not seen significant increases in checkpoint wait times at this point, the prolonged shutdown is significantly impacting frontline employees and is expected to lead to increased callouts and wait times at PHX,” Shelbrack said in a statement.