BFC In the News

Bread for the City social workers speak with The Washington Informer's Sam Collins about medicaid redeterminations.

We're giving cash to a group of our medical patients, no strings attached. One of our participants, Deborah, shared, "We've gotten a lot of things straight as far as health and getting our mouths fed."

Learn about the CashRx program and Deborah.

Bread for the City has initiated the "Cash RX" program to provide extra financial support to residents suffering from chronic conditions, aiming to address economic inequality and health disparities in the District. Participants determine their cash amounts and decide how to spend it, with an average monthly ask of $1,100 to $1,400. Results show positive impacts, such as reduced stress about basic needs, including utilities, rent, and food. Recipients utilize the funds for various purposes, from medical expenses to cultural needs, demonstrating responsible spending. Funded by a health fund from a D.C. insurer settlement and donations, the program aims to expand and serve as a model for systemic change.

Read Wayne's story - from incarceration to Bread for the City team member with support from Arnold Venture's BreakFree Education Fellowship.

If you’re having a heart attack, chances are you won’t be handcuffed and stuffed in the back of a police cruiser when someone calls for help. You’ll probably be cla-clanked into an ambulance on a gurney, where people in a health crisis belong. But when Chioma Oruh would call for help when her brother — who lived for 47 years with schizophrenia — was having a panic attack or an anxiety attack, the handcuffs and a D.C. police cruiser were what he got, she said. Every time.

“Relying on a less effective, potentially harmful response … may deprive people with mental health disabilities of an equal opportunity to benefit from a critical public service,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement Thursday.