One year ago, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline shortened its 10-digit phone number to a three-digit number to make it more accessible for those in need. Eight.

(AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)NEW YORK – At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Sharawn Vinson often woke up crying. Vinson was not alone in struggling to put food on the table in this historically tumultuous year. In New York City alone, an estimated 2 million residents are facing food insecurity, a number that the city’s mayor estimates nearly doubled in the pandemic amid the biggest surge in unemployment since the Great Depression. Vinson had the first of her six children at age 18 and recalls struggling to pay for diapers and food. She saved up food stamps and some money, and found a job working for the 2020 U.S. Census.