BFC In the News

"Because of systems that have worked against Black residents for decades, dismantling barriers to realize a true right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is in order and long overdue. And it includes a right to housing," - George Jones

Lynda Brown, director of the Southeast center and of social services, was there that day. “As the community members were coming through and actually getting their bags from the first family, they passed me on the way out and many of them were in tears,” she says. “If that level of impact can happen for them just seeing that, having Mrs. Obama’s name on this building hopefully will have that same level of impact for the community.”

D.C. nonprofit Bread for the City’s massive new center on Good Hope Road is nearly complete and staffers are getting excited to hang up the sign out front: “The Michelle Obama Southeast Center of Bread for the City.”

"We’re just trying to meet the demand, and clearly there’s still many people in the city who are not vaccinated,” Dr. Randi Abramson said.

Bread For The City has been scheduling vaccine appointments for its patients and putting shots in arms since late December, but the walk-up vaccines are a new addition.

Clearly, these D.C. facilities received more vaccine doses than they knew what to do with, perhaps because so few of them are participating. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration website, only seven D.C. community health centers, all of them very small, are participating or have been invited to participate in its COVID-19 vaccine program. (The two best-known are Bread for the City and Community of Hope.) According to the CDC website, only four corporations are signed up for the pharmacy program in D.C. Most of the participating stores aren’t pharmacies at all, but rather supermarkets that house small pharmacy sections.

“We just haven’t dealt with the root of this issue, which is the long history of oppression and disadvantage that’s created this extreme poverty,” added George Jones, CEO of Bread for the City.

The projects raised money for local non-profits and charities such as Bread for the City, Think Local First D.C., SMYAL and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.