U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly announced Thursday that, as promised, he has donated his pay for the three days that the federal government was shut down last month. The pay, worth $940, was donated to ten food banks across Indiana. Donnelly helped craft a deal last month to end the shutdown by working with a bipartisan group of more than 20 Senators.
Donnelly said, “I’ve long said that funding the government is our most basic job, which is why I voted to keep the government open. As I have in the past, I’ve donated my pay from the days the government was shut down to Hoosier food banks, as I thought it was inappropriate for me to take my paycheck because Congress had failed to fund the government.”
Donnelly wrote checks for $94 to ten food banks across the state. He donated funds in Evansville to United Caring Shelters, in Fort Wayne to the Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, in Gary to the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, in Indianapolis to Gleaners, in Lafayette to the Food Finders Food Bank, in Muncie to the Second Harvest Food Bank, in New Albany to Hope Southern Indiana, in Richmond to the Circle U Help Center, in South Bend to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, and in Terre Haute to the Catholic Charities of Terre Haute.
These are the same ten food banks that Donnelly donated to in 2013, after he helped end that 16-day shutdown. According to Feeding America, there are 950,000 food insecure Hoosiers.
