Bakery manager Linda Holfinger consults her Pie Chart in the kitchen of The Pie Heaven Bakery Cafe in Atlantic Beach. The bakery is offering free chicken pot pies to those working without pay during the government shutdown. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 20, 2025 at 4:43 pm
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Along a stretch of State Road A1A in Atlantic Beach, a small house serves as a bakery offering help during the federal government shutdown in the form of savory chicken pot pies.
The bakery shares the busy roadway with other small businesses: a barbershop, a used car dealership, a self-storage facility and a foodbank at the Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry, or BEAM.
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Lana Reed is loading her car trunk with bags of food from BEAM. She lives just off A1A, works at a nearby middle school and has a family of five.
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“And I was in the store the other day and I got enough pork chops on clearance for $10 to feed the kids and not me and my husband,” she says. “And that’s just the state of things right now.”
Reed says she’s planning for the worst. She’s unsure what will happen to her SNAP food benefits amid the ongoing government shutdown.
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“Our EBT stamps that we receive are going to be okay in October, but if they don’t fix the situation soon, November’s going to be terrible,” she says.
Shutdown help after 4 weeks
Active military was last paid Oct. 15, but no one is certain when the next checks will come. And there are some at the base who are going to their jobs with no pay.
Just up the road, south of Mayport Naval Station, Pie Heaven Bakery Café cools its pies on tall metal racks. Customers smell apples, raisins and cider. In the back, it looks like Grandma’s kitchen, with large mixers and bags and bags of sugar.
Owner Anita Hyde has been here for 12 years. She feels for those in the community affected by the government shutdown, now entering its fourth week.
“We’re right down the street from the base. It just doesn’t make sense that we wouldn’t do something,” Hyde says. “And so I looked at Linda, our kitchen manager, and I said, ‘I want to give chicken pot pies to the families that aren’t getting paid, if they’re having to show up for work anyway. And she’s like, ‘OK.’”
And so without counting the cost, Hyde told a Mayport base ombudsman about her offer of a free pot pie for those working without pay. Word got out, and now she describes her kitchen helpers ‘bumpin’ into each other all day, making batches of extra pies.’
Hyde gives an example of fire department employees on Mayport Naval base — all government employees, not getting paid.
“A few of them called in and they said, OK, there’s like 17 of us on duty right now. And can we take advantage of this? I said, you betcha. Get in here,” Hyde says.
A 9-inch Pie Heaven pot pie sells for $38 and takes about three hours to make. But the free pies are meant for people like Miranda Bosse, a federal worker stationed at an air national guard base on Jacksonville’s north side.
“We haven’t seen a paycheck since Oct. 1st. We still haven’t heard anything, so we don’t know when we’re going to get paid next,” Bosse says. She gratefully accepts a pot pie reserved for her and her young son.
“Because I’m a single mom. I have him, so I had to defer my mortgage,” she says. “I had to defer my truck payment and all that. So it really sucks, you know?”
Bosse expects they’ll eat the pie for dinner and save some for tomorrow.
Hyde admits she’s not fully sure what she’s gotten herself (and her tiny bakery shop) into, giving out so many pot pies — 60 of them went out the door last week.
But an unexpected thing happened: Contributions from some of her customers have offset the baking costs. So, for now, her free pie offer still stands.
“And the one thing about chicken pot pie is it’s comfort food. And it sent them the message, you know, we see you, we care,” Hyde says. “If you don’t know what you’re going to do for dinner tonight, you know, at least we got you there.”
