Just a short walk from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim sits a nondescript building with a ponderosa pine bench out front. Inside the building, shelves sit stocked with locally baked bread, fresh vegetables, canned goods, and yogurt. Three days a week, locals queue up in front of the building, sometimes waiting over an hour, to receive free groceries.
Called the Grand Canyon Food Pantry, the charity food bank serves people living in nearby Grand Canyon Village, a small town located within the boundaries of the famed National Park.
In recent weeks, an increasing number of the pantry’s customers have been National Park Service workers who have been furloughed amid the federal shutdown.
Heather Lapre, who manages the Grand Canyon Food Pantry, told Outside that the number of people arriving at the food bank has swelled since October 14, which is when NPS paychecks were last delivered to many workers.
Lapre first noticed the uptick in clients shortly after the government officially shut down on October 1. In the weeks afterward, she’s seen that number steadily rise as more NPS workers have gone without paychecks.
“This whole year has been just full of terrible surprises, from people getting laid off to the hiring freeze,” Lapre told Outside. “We have all these vacant positions and no way to fill them. Every department is just squeaking by.”
The uptick in customers has had a major impact on the food bank. With more demand and longer lines, Lepre has had to implement a registration process to get “folks through the door fairly quickly.” People can apply using a paper application while they wait, which Lapre later enters into a computer.
It’s a labor of love that Lapre puts into keeping her community healthy. She’s lived in Grand Canyon Village, located along the South Rim, for 16 years. Her kids have grown up in the canyon. But the small town has taken a big hit with the government shutdown. Her husband was also furloughed, and October 28 marked his and many other laid-off Service employees’ first skipped payday.
She’s not alone. In other small towns near NPS sites, organizations and individuals are stepping in to support Park Service workers with necessities, such as meals and other forms of assistance.
Organizations Step Up to Feed NPS Workers
About 3,000 people live in Grand Canyon Village, located about 90 minutes north of Flagstaff, Arizona. According to Lapre, about 500 of the full-time residents are also NPS employees.
“It’s kind of funny, our resource here being the Grand Canyon,” she said. “I can go about my daily life and almost forget that there’s this phenomenal, famous resource a ten-minute walk from my house.”
Communities like Grand Canyon Village are not just a service to National Parks; they’re entire communities complete with schools, medical clinics, clubs, and dances. People who live and work in these places are intrinsically connected to the land on which they work. NPS employees who are laid off can’t simply find a job nearby—their livelihoods are tied to the park, and the throngs of visitors who come to see it.
There are other similar groups also stepping in to fill the void left by the government shutdown. The Zion Forever Project, the park’s nonprofit partner, has organized with local restaurants and organizations near the park’s Springdale, Utah, entrance. The charity provides meals, gas vouchers, and pet care to laid-off park employees.
Similarly, a unique coalition of local groups at Great Smoky Mountains National Park stepped in to fund the park, ensuring that it stayed ready to welcome visitors during its busiest season. Earlier this month, the group raised over $2 million to cover operational costs, enabling the park’s 275 employees to remain fully paid and supporting the local tourism industry.
But for those like Lapre, these services aren’t just supplementary. They’re a lifeline to many who live the unique life of park service employees.
A Business Started to Help the NPS
NPS rangers Michael Scott and Matt Vandzura launched the Grand Canyon Food Pantry during the 2018 federal shutdown to provide food to those affected by the funding lapse. That year, the federal shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest in U.S. history.
During the shutdown, the food pantry distributed 29,000 pounds of food to residents and workers.
“It was the shutdown at the end of 2018 and the role we played then that helped our park see how crucial it was to have some kind of social service or safety net,” said Lapre.
Lapre took over the food pantry in 2024, when Scott, who had started it as a “retirement passion project,” decided to retire.
When Lapre and I talked, our phone call dropped multiple times as she wove through the desert on the hour-and-a-half trek from Grand Canyon Village to Flagstaff, phone on speaker. It’s a typical commute for her as she works to keep the small community fed.
Lapre travels to Flagstaff to “rescue” groceries from the Flagstaff Family Food Center and St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, charities that receive donated food and government commodities, which, in turn, supply the Grand Canyon Food Pantry. And with higher demand, Lapre says she needs to get more food from her sources.
“What that looks like is a little store, people are assigned a bag to shop,” said Lapre. With their assigned bag, people do their shopping once a week. Their allotment of food is based on the size of their household. Shelves are stocked with grab-and-go items, such as sandwiches and burritos, as well as nonperishable goods like canned goods and locally grown produce.
“We try to be sensitive to just keeping people’s needs met quickly and easily,” said Lapre. “I do make a lot of effort to have a lot of fresh food as well, which I’m really proud of.”
She stores her food in a historic boat house donated by the Park Service until the pantry is open.
A Shutdown with no end in sight
After 45 minutes of our call, Lapre told me that she needed to rest. She describes herself as an “introverted extrovert” and said that long days spent talking to people leave her feeling exhausted.
“We’ll serve whoever shows up, non discriminately,” said Lapre.
How long Lapre will have to keep feeding NPS workers is undetermined. With no end in sight, the 2025 federal shutdown is likely to keep organizations like hers busy. The government shutdown has furloughed more than 9,000 national park staff, according to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
“That’s roughly two-thirds of all National Park Service employees,” NPCA’s Caitlyn Burford told Outside.
At the Grand Canyon, Lapre tells me she feels grateful for her work—it’s allowed her to meet people who are resilient and determined, she says.
“Working in the Grand Canyon attracts people at many different phases of their lives. Some come looking for adventure; for others, it’s a job or a place to start over,” she said. “I’ve met so many wonderful people who display resilience and determination. We look for joy in the day-to-day—we speak of the beauty surrounding us here in Northern Arizona, being grateful for rain, and observing the wildlife. The patterns of life here. Our collective experience, the noticing and conversation, brings meaning to all of us.”
The post Meet the Women Feeding the Grand Canyon’s Laid-Off National Park Service Employees appeared first on Outside Online.
