BFC In the News 2021

"A lot of it is going to center around, first and foremost, protecting the vaccine itself. Making sure it doesn't go to waste, that we don't take it out too early. And then secondly, figuring out how to get back on schedule with giving people the vaccine," said Bread For The City CEO George Jones.

Bread for the City announced it would close through the inauguration and Miriam’s Kitchen also announced it would suspend some of its meal and bathroom services. Emergency shelters and two drop-in centers remain open on Inauguration Day.

Amid all that, housing advocates say that many of the city's unhoused have been displaced, nonprofit groups that people rely on for food, bathrooms, and medical care have had to temporarily cease operations. Miriam's Kitchen, a local nonprofit working to end chronic homelessness, shut down one of their meal services this week for the first time in 38 years. Bread for the City canceled its grocery delivery services this week as well as the free COVID-19 testing and flu shots it typically offers on Tuesdays

“We have community members who rely on us even more because of the pandemic. They’re taking the fall even more now,” says Kenrick Thomas, Bread for the City.

"There are a number of people who have told us that they’re still thinking it through," Bread for the City CEO George Jones said.

“We have to figure out how to get people, and to some degree, even the right people, access to the doses we do have,” George Jones said.

Bread for the City, nonprofit on Seventh and P Streets NW that serves low-income residents, has been offering the vaccine to health-care workers and now to seniors. Most have signed up for the organization’s 50 slots per day through the city’s portal.