FAIRBORN — A local Greene County restaurant is offering free meals to government workers and SNAP benefit recipients every Thursday during the government shutdown.
Giovanni’s in Fairborn gave out more than 350 meals to the community on Thursday.
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Donna from Fairborn said her family moved to the area back in June.
She works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and has taken on extra work since her coworkers have been furloughed due to the government shutdown.
“I’m working. I’m doing double work and I’m not getting paid double,” said Donna.
Donna isn’t the only one whose workplace is being affected by the shutdown.
Cassandra Spaziani, a general manager for Giovanni’s, said she has seen a 40 percent decrease in lunch sales.
“Our lunches are very slow right now, because they worked on base and came here for lunch. Now they’re not,” said Spaziani.
Despite seeing a decrease in sales, Giovanni’s employees wanted to help the community, with the community.
“It’s, you know, hard for us, but the community has come through. They’ve given us donations to help. One of my food suppliers today dropped off some food for next week that we could prepare. So that’s a huge help for us as well,” said Spaziani.
Even though Giovanni’s did run out of food to give, they were able to supplement with a few pizzas, and said they will be better prepared for next Thursday.
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