Since the beginning of the year, we have seen visitor numbers to the Pantry jump dramatically - and they are continuing to increase.  Guest counts well above 200 have become the norm, and we have twice comfortably exceeded the records set at the very start of the pandemic in 2020. On our February 8 distribution, we served 273 guests, and just last Friday (February 18), we hit 265.  And all this with temperatures often in the single digits, or worse.

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Other than to note the obvious impacts of inflation and the expiration of expanded child tax credits introduced by the American Recovery Act (providing families with up to an extra $300 per child), I'm not going to speculate about the reasons for this developing crisis. 

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I just want to say thank you to all our incredibly hard-working volunteers who, yet again, have stepped up to the new challenges presented by such numbers.  Working in frigid temperatures is hard enough,  but providing help to so many extra folks without missing a beat is truly an amazing feat. Sometimes I feel like a broken record (kids, ask your grandparents), but we have a truly awesome team, click, but we have a truly awesome team, click, but we have a truly awesome team, click, but we have a truly awesome team, click, but we truly...

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Although my sense is that Daily Bread has seen bigger increases in client visits than other local pantries, our experience is being repeated at some level both locally and nationally. If it isn't behind a paywall for you, here is a link to a Washington Post article that helps put some perspective to the impact of losing the tax credits on child poverty rates generally, and on an individual level.

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