First Baptist Church Huntsville / Facebook Travis Collins is the senior pastor of Alabama's First Baptist Church of Huntsville, which gave local federal workers $16,500 in grocery store gift cards. An evangelical church in Alabama handed out $16,500 in grocery store gift cards to local federal workers and contractors struggling to make ends meet during the ongoing partial government shutdown. The church purchased over 300 Publix gift cards from a local grocery store in $50 increments. The shutdown has affected 800,000 federal workers, about 420,000 of whom must still report to work, even without being paid. Below, Collins invites furloughed workers to attend a charity event at First Baptist Church of Huntsville.

Source: Huffington Post January 21, 2019 21:11 UTC