Women are coming together to support She Suite resource hub in Prince George’s County, a one-stop shop that has seen the need grow since the government shutdown started.
“We went from servicing 40 families a week to last week, we serviced 160 families,” said co-founder Tamika Paige.
She Suite was founded by Paige, Latoya Burch and Latoya Ball.
For the last few weeks, laid off federal and furloughed workers along with SNAP recipients have come through their doors at the Shops at Iverson seeking community and help to feed their families.
“We are giving people a safe space to shop in luxury inside of a mall in bags and it holds up their self-esteem and their pride when they don’t have to be embarrassed to ask for help,” Burch said.
Women can pick up clothes, food and job training skills to enter into the workforce. The owners say many of the items inside were purchased by the founders and come from donation collections.
The hub has been a valuable outlet for those who say they’ve had to make difficult decisions for the last few weeks. Nearly 42 million people rely on SNAP, which helps recipients buy food.
Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a freeze on a federal judge’s ruling requiring the Trump administration to fully fund the federal food program in November, meaning through midnight Thursday, the government does not have to distribute about $4 billion in additional SNAP funding.
The bipartisan bill making its way through Congress is expected to fund the SNAP program through September of next year, and the house is expected to vote on Wednesday on the senate-passed measure to end the shutdown.
Food, house essentials, paper towels, these are just some of the items that the owners of the She Suite say are going off the shelves, mainly because those who are coming in say they need this and even more items in order to provide for their families.
“Sixty-five percent of the women this last past week, it was their first time ever using a service like ours, so it’s a very vulnerable population of people,” Paige said.
“They won’t be in this place for long, and we give them hope to let them know that, ‘Hey we’re going to reassure you that you’re not in this by yourself and this will be over soon,’” Burch said.
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