In a famous scene from Mel Brooks’ classic film, “Young Frankenstein,” one character says, “It could be worse. Could be raining,” only for a downpour to immediately begin.

That’s what it was like for the most vulnerable among us when the Covid pandemic hit this spring: An already difficult situation became dramatically worse. While no sector of society has been untouched by Covid, individuals who were struggling with poverty, and the agencies that serve them, have been hardest hit. Meanwhile, furloughs, layoffs, and the drying up of federal stimulus resources have pushed ever-growing numbers of people into poverty, and a shrinking tax base leaves the government less able to help.

Read the rest of this article on eJewish Philanthropy