Visits to food pantries on U.S. military bases in Japan climbed in October during the federal government shutdown, according to an informal survey by Stars and Stripes.

The Neighborhood Pantry at the Marine Corps’ Camps Foster and Kinser on Okinawa saw a steady rise in visits, said Angie Tomlin, the community support coordinator for both locations. About 160 people visited the pantries in October, up from 146 in September and 122 in August, she said Tuesday at the Foster pantry.

“We just hope this doesn’t last too long, because I feel like our island resources are going to run out at some point,” she said.

Donations came from local organizations and through the pantry’s Facebook and PayPal pages. The Marine gift shop on Foster donated $275 and about 240 pounds of food, and an anonymous donor gave $3,000, Tomlin said.

At Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, visits to the food pantry increased by more than a third over the past month — from 45 in September to 62 in October, according to volunteer Erica Minner. The pantry has been able to open more often thanks to additional volunteers, she said there on Tuesday.

Donations at Yokota doubled after Oct. 9, said the pantry’s manager, Air Force Master Sgt. Justin Pribble. The pantry typically receives about 400 donated items each month but took in 892 in October, including canned goods, dry pasta, cereal, peanut butter, tuna packs and fruit juice.

Meanwhile, some military families living off base are struggling to pay rent during the shutdown.

Seaside Housing in Chatan, Okinawa, recently received about 10 requests to extend November rent deadlines, front office manager Robert Harding said by phone Wednesday. The company handled about a dozen rent-delay or late-fee waiver requests in October from roughly 600 Department of Defense tenants.

“The concern is if it happens past November,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to ask rental owners to hold off longer when it comes to that situation.”

The Okinawa Military Family Housing Office at Kadena Air Base asked some landlords and property managers to waive late fees, according to Harding and another management firm.

“Everybody is responsible for paying their bills on time,” customer service representative Leonard Myers said at the housing office on Thursday.

Between five and 10 people have contracted the office with rent concerns, he said. However, “neither the government nor Kadena Housing” may interfere with rent or bill collection by off-base housing agencies and utilities, he said via email Thursday.

Myers’s email said service members and civilians may seek help through pay advances or loans from financial institutions, unemployment benefits, the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, and the Employee Assistance Program.

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society has provided $415,317 in interest-free loans to 326 clients during the shutdown, society representative Mac McKeever said Friday in an emailed statement.

“Our focus is on providing immediate, practical support and helping families stay steady until all regular pay resumes,” Dawn Cutler, the society’s chief operations officer, said in the statement.

Stars and Stripes reporters Ryan Breeden, Marc Castaneda, Brian McElhiney and Alex Wilson contributed to this report.

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