Atlanta (CNN) A line of cars stretched across a parking lot beneath a gray sky Friday in Atlanta as employees from the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection and their families waited for groceries from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Antioch Baptist Church North.

"I feel pain," said Robert Timmons, a retired member of the US armed forces who said he's been working for the TSA for 16 years.

"And I feel a little remorseful, because our elected officials, who we trust to take care of business, (are) not taking care of business. And they put the suffering on the people who are working to make sure that the mission that we have is carried out."

Timmons said he's doing OK for now, thanks to his status as retired military. But the partial government shutdown -- now in its 28th day as President Donald Trump and Congress remain at an impasse over a border wall -- is hard on many of his colleagues who struggling without a paycheck.

"I'm an older guy," he said. "A lot of the younger people who have not had the chance to set up their financial situation, they are struggling. People have children. Some families, they have two people working for the government and I feel awful."

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