Montgomery County food pantries struggle to meet need in face of limited county funding

On a sweltering Thursday in July at the So What Else food pantry in North Bethesda, Chris Yonushonis is directing staff and volunteers as they unload pallets loaded with packs of SmartWater bottles in preparation for the pantry’s weekly outdoor distribution of food and necessities to an estimated 1,000 families. On Saturdays, the line of cars for the distribution at the nonprofit’s Wyaconda Road pantry usually snakes around the block and throughout the surrounding neighborhoods, said Yonushonis, the Rockville nonprofit’s Montgomery County deputy director of hunger relief.