BFC In the News 2015

Bread for the City, a D.C.-based nonprofit devoted to poverty alleviation, has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture for allegedly failing to buy the amount of food required by an act of Congress through the Emergency Food Assistance Program.

With an increasing number of clients who speak little or no English, District caseworkers for food stamps and other types of aid repeatedly violate a 2004 local law mandating access to interpreters, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

At Bread for the City, a routine task delegated to a student intern more than a decade ago has now sparked a national movement.

In 2014, D.C. looked at expanding access to naloxone to limit heroin deaths. A year later, advocates and drug users are still waiting.

If you put on your magic hat and conjured up an organization that addressed all the needs of DC’s low-income residents, it would probably look something like Bread for the City. From its beginning partnership with Zacchaeus Free Clinic in a church basement 40 years ago, Bread for the City has grown to a multi-facility powerhouse providing comprehensive services for over 33,000 DC residents a year.

Recognizing that workers living East of the River needed greater access to their services, last September the DC Employment Justice Center launched an expanded monthly clinic in Fairlawn. The clinic, which had previously been open every other Friday morning, is now open to clients on one Saturday each month.

Bread’s CEO George A. Jones: “People have always come from outside our Zip code to access our services.”

Many more digital than their peers in tony areas