A Third of New York City Food Pantries Have Shut Down, Swelling Bread Lines

Bread lines stretching for blocks have sprouted up across the country, evoking similar images from the Great Depression. In New York City, the lines are partly due to skyrocketing unemployment that has forced far more residents to turn to city services. But the high demand has been exacerbated by a collapse in the city’s longstanding food assistance infrastructure.

According to de Blasio administration officials approximately 35%of the city’s roughly 1,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and mobile pantries have closed in recent weeks. Those closures have needy residents to take trains across the city, exposing themselves further to the risk of contracting COVID-19, to find help wherever they can.