Many volunteers have been asking how the current administration's policies and priorities are affecting Daily Bread. We break it down in a two-minute read, even if you read pretty slowly.

Earlier this year, the incoming administration pulled around $500M from the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which is the main government program we rely on for our twice-weekly deliveries from our principal food bank partner, Connecticut Foodshare.

At the same time, the Local Food Purchase Agreement (LFPA) program was eliminated. This program provided funds to CT Foodshare to buy food from local producers – so a blow not just to the food insecure, but to farmers too.

These changes have meant less food is available to us every week, and we must compete harder for what remains.

On the demand side, changes to SNAP (food stamps) mean more families will need to turn to us for help. And this was before the government shutdown put at risk funding the program at all. As of this writing, there is no funding for November's SNAP benefits, leaving around 360,000 Connecticut residents in the lurch.

Federal workers who have not been paid in weeks may also find themselves short of food - perhaps for the first time in their lives.

The government shutdown will not last forever, but households on tight budgets face other headwinds. Changes to Medicaid mean many will have to choose between food and their prescription medicines. And although cuts to TEFAP and the LFPA program are the ones that are affecting us most directly, other food assistance programs have also been reduced or are under threat.

So, what are we doing about all this? As always, the great Daily Bread community is stepping up.

• Since opening the super pantry, we have steadily increased the number of families we serve each week - it's now closing in on 1,000.
• We're keeping our shelves filled by purchasing more food, adding retail partners to our "rescue" programs, and generally diversifying our supply chain.
• We are looking at ways to increase our assistance to SNAP recipients and federal workers while the shutdown continues.
• We are seeking out new grant opportunities, and reaching out to our donor base to let them know what is happening.

Together, we will see this through. Now, back to our regular programming!

It has been suggested that what we need at Daily Bread is a suggestion box. Heretofore, it was not apparent that such an object was necessary: every day, hundreds of suggestions ranging from the brilliant to the completely unhinged are submitted to Daily Bread World Headquarters. However, we supppose it is possible that some volunteers, intimidated by the palatial and forbidding environs of the Daily Bread C-Suite, are holding back.

Given the quantity of suggestions likely to be submitted, the box would have to be very large, plus we'd need room for the 24/7 security camera to ensure submissions remain completely anonymous. As we all know, every square inch of the super pantry is already being used, so a physical box is out of the question. The answer, of course, is to make the box virtual, and that is what we have done. You can submit your latest idea by clicking on the picture above, or by visiting the Volunteer Resources area of our website.

All submissions will be carefully considered and evaluated on the following 1 to 10 scale, which you can interpret as you see fit.

We needed a new photo for the top of our Facebook page - the old one was taken at Terrace Place. But how to persuade enough volunteers to show up all at once? At Daily Bread, we are not above a little ice cream bribery, especially if we can have some fun 'n' games at the same time. It was a blast!

Every year, we ask our guests how we are doing, and try to learn a little more about their preferences. Since it wouldn't do to mark our own homework, we invite a group of enthusiastic students from WESCONN to conduct the survey. Of the almost 50 random guests polled, 100% rated the pantry highly or very highly, and 96% confirmed they much preferred the super pantry shopping model versus the Terrace Place "grab 'n' go" process.

Naturally, there were areas where we could do better. After all, the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. A couple of takeaways: we need to provide more information to our guests about our food code guidelines ("Best By", "Sell By", etc.); and we need to make our "points" and "limits" signage clearer. We are on it!

To keep us on our toes, the survey is now available online, so guests can give us feedback year-round.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of the staff, students and parents of Ridgefield Academy, we found ourselves with FIVE brand new kids' bikes to give to our smaller guests. But how to decide who would get them? After a little thought, we decided to run a story competition. It was a spectacular success, with over 60 entries received online or through old-school paper submissions. Well done to the talented winners, and a special thank you to Jay and Helga Moody for donating helmets to go with each bike.

As always, there's so much going on at the pantry we can just cover a handful of things.

In what has become a fixture on the Daily Bread calendar, Rockwell Elementary School in Bethel held its annual "Cereal Dominoes" Drive. And when the last box of Cheerios had toppled, we got to collect the lot - over 500 boxes.

Click on the photo to relive all the excitement!

The High Holidays always bring an amazing amount of food donations from area synagogues and temples. It's also a great opportunity for kids to learn a little more about what we do at Daily Bread. Here, a very lively group from Congregation Shir Shalom in Ridgefield pause for a photo op after being put to work helping out around the pantry.

Not to be outdone, kids (and parents) from the United Jewish Center in Danbury arrived with an equally huge donation, and were so excited to see the pantry they needed a moment in the freezer to cool off.

As highlighted by the guest survey, keeping our "points" and "limits" signage clear and understandable is a constant challenge. Our new weapon - a shopping floor digital screen that looks just like a blackboard...until it changes before your very eyes!

In another space-age innovation from the Daily Bread R&D department, we are rolling out these handy Points Calculators, so guests can keep track of their points as they shop. What a time to be alive!

Keeping our shelves filled sometimes means we have not one, but TWO tractor-trailers backed up to our receiving dock. Many thanks to Connecticut Foodshare and our latest partner, D'Arrigo New York.

If you don't find the rear end of two trucks appealing, here are Past President Debbie Landzberg, Board member and New American Dream Foundation Vice President Emanuela Palmares, and Volunteer Coordinator extraordinaire Maureeen Garry, all glammed up at the NADF's annual extravaganza.

Don't forget to sign up for our Holiday Potluck Party. It'll be AT LEAST as much fun as the Ice Cream Social, we promise! Even if you are not sure what you might bring, click on the picture to sign up so we have an idea how many folks are planning to attend. You can just write "Don't know yet" in the box asking what you are going to bring.

Parting Shot