Is this holiday season shaping up as a replay of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” without the redemption and joy of that story’s ending? It looks that way from David Abel’s pre-Thanksgiving story of food pantries across Massachusetts (“ ‘I’ve never seen anything like this kind of need,’ ” Page A1, Nov. 25).
We at Action for Boston Community Development are seeing the same painful need at our food pantries, and thousands are calling our fuel assistance hot line. Frantic requests for housing aid are accelerating, with many tenants six months or more behind in rent. ABCD’s rental assistance director said it breaks her heart to hear the desperation in their voices.
