AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Local food banks report doubling and tripling numbers as new faces seek help for the first time.

The Augusta Dream Center served 554 families in one day, according to Executive Director Kellie Newman.

“We see our numbers doubling and tripling every day,” said Hallie Kohan, assistant director at Augusta Dream Center.

Newman said the situation feels like a crisis that has caught organizations off guard.

“This feels like a crisis. This is a crisis that’s happening and it’s kind of just snuck up on us,” Newman said. “I don’t think we realized how the government shutdown, how it was gonna have this domino effect.”

Family Promise of Augusta launched an emergency food drive to address growing need.

“We have government workers who aren’t receiving paychecks, therefore, you know, they’re facing food insecurities and they’re just as important as it is for our unhoused community right now,” said Christina Williams, an intern at Family Promise of Augusta who came up with the food drive idea.

Executive Director Jennifer Ferguson said donations can be made at Family Promise on Wheeler Road or at Dave and Busters. The organization plans to partner with other companies for additional donation sites.

The Augusta Dream Center will be open on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for those needing groceries. They will also serve Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and again on Sunday.

“We are trying to break barriers down for you and help feed your family. We’re not trying to add any barriers in your life,” Kohan said.

Newman said they expect the need to continue to grow and are working with Golden Harvest food bank and other agencies to find solutions.

“Some people are just really at the mercy of unfortunate circumstances that they have no control over,” Newman said.

Family Promise says you can go online to donate money, or you can go to the location on Wheeler Road to donate as well.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Part of Mike Padgett Highway is being shut down because of a washout.

The Georgia Department of Transportation said Wednesday afternoon it’s shutting down both regular northbound lanes at Butler Creek, about a mile south of Interstate 520/Bobby Jones Expressway.

A washout has been discovered under the approach slab to the bridge.

Northbound traffic is being reduced to one lane on the paved median.

Both southbound lanes will remain open.

Repairs will take at least one week, weather permitting.

Drivers are advised to slow down and use caution when navigating the work zone.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – With funding for Head Start programs expected to run out after Friday, the YMCA has secured emergency funding to keep Head Start programs open past Friday.

The programs currently serve nearly 700 children in the Augusta area.

Ut’s an important program for many Georgia families.

Take Heather Morris, who lives in Madison County.

She’s a Head Start teacher, her husband serves in the Army and he’s not getting paid during the shutdown. Two of their children are enrolled in Head Start, receiving speech therapy that’s changed their lives. Now she could lose her paycheck and the care her family depends on.

“Well, yesterday I cried all day,” Morris said.

“You’re looking around your home like, what can we sell or what can we give up? I mean, do you let your children starve? No. Do you pull your children out of school to let them stay with the younger ones? That’s not an option either,” Morris said.

To keep programs like Morris’s open, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta stepped in with an $8 million bridge loan, buying 45 more days of operations for the YMCA, Sheltering Arms, and Easterseals North Georgia.

“Typically philanthropy does not step up to fill the role of the federal government. But these are really uncertain times,” said Frank Fernandez of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

That loan covers about 5,800 children in North Georgia, but families of nearly 700 children in south Georgia are already being told they won’t have a place to go after Friday.

Impact on working families

About 80% of Head Start parents work at least one job, often low-wage and hourly. Without child care, leaders fear some families may have to pull older kids out of school to look after their younger siblings.

“We need the adult leaders in this country to come to the table and not make the children of our communities suffer,” said Lauren Koontz of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta.

The bridge loan keeps some programs open but only through mid-December. Families and providers say they need more than a temporary fix and need Washington to act.

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