The not-for-profit Bread for the City helps people in the District all year round, but the group’s executive director of nearly 14 years explains how the economic crisis is hitting the prime outreach season during the holidays.
What is Bread for the City doing this Thanksgiving?
We are running our annual Holiday Helpings campaign, that’s what we call it, and it is providing holiday turkey and all the trimmings to about 8,500 families over the month of November and early into December.
How many does that compare to from years past?
The number is actually down, really because of the recession. We had to trim back as we trimmed back the budget for many of our programs during the course of this year, just responding to the fact that we either saw the donations were down or we’re getting reports from many of our longtime funders that their giving would be down. So although 8,500 is a large number, we’ve had years where we’ve exceeded 10,000.
Do you have a sense of what the need is this year?
The need is probably more likely 50,000 to 100,000. … The need in the District alone is a far greater number over what we do. Unfortunately it’s true with all the programs. We’re a nonprofit that gives food, clothing, medical, legal and social services to low-income residents. We see about 5,000 households every month through the course of the year. But again that number is still probably only a drop in the bucket.
So this year donations and resources are down. Are you seeing an increase in volunteers?
The volunteer numbers are always robust in the holiday season so I wouldn’t say that I see an increase, per se, but certainly that number has not gone down. People are as committed as ever to giving their time.
– Kytja Weir
