When Mike Bruno began working at Human Needs Food Pantry 13 years ago, 60 walk-ins — families looking for meals and personal care items — was a busy day.
In 2025, the Montclair pantry sees 200 to 300 walk-ins every day. By the end of June, the organization had already served 2,000 more households than it did in all of 2024.
“Most people don’t realize the extent of the problem until they happen to come down a street where you have a place like ours, and they see that line of people,” said Bruno, the pantry’s executive director. “They never imagined that something like that was going on 10 blocks from their house.”…