Columbia Community Care: The Heart Behind the Mission

A mile-long line for groceries can change how you see your own town. After COVID shut down schools, Erika watched fear ripple through students and families in Howard County, Maryland and she decided to act. What begins as a quick Facebook call for donations turns into Columbia Community Care, a volunteer-powered network built on trust, logistics, and neighbors who refuse to let families go hungry.

We talk through Erika’s origin story, from growing up in Columbia’s “bubble” to learning civic engagement the hard way at Wild Lake, where student protests and an ACLU-supported case cemented the power of young people using their voices. That same mix of conviction and community building shows up years later as she juggles virtual teaching with setting up food distribution sites, coordinating deliveries, and figuring out nonprofit systems in real time.

You’ll also hear why food insecurity is not only about unemployment. Erika breaks down the ALICE population (asset limited, income-constrained, employed) and why working families often do not qualify for SNAP or other services. We dig into how Columbia Community Care fills that gap with low-barrier support, partnerships across the county, and programs that now include youth mentorship and wellness for moms and those who mother. Then we look ahead to The Source, a 65,000-square-foot community center planned for the former Columbia Flier building, designed to bring youth spaces, a gym, a food hall, and health connections under one roof.

If this story moved you, there are so many ways to get involved 💛 Whether it’s volunteering your time, donating resources, or simply spreading the word, every small action helps strengthen the network that Columbia Community Care has built. ✨

🌐 https://columbiacommunitycare.org

📘 https://bit.ly/CCC-Facebook

 📸 https://instagram.com/columbiacommunitycare

 💼 https://linkedin.com/company/columbia-community-care

Transcript

Welcome And Maryland Spring Weather

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey friends, and welcome to Mom Talk Maryland. I'm your host, Claire Duarte, founder of the Columbia Mom. And this is your spot for real conversations, local love, and a whole lot of community. Whether you're folding laundry, running errands, or hiding in your car for some peace and quiet, let's dive in. Alright, you ready? Yeah, let's tune it. Erica, I'm so glad to have you here. Thanks for having me. Oh my gosh, of course. We are kicking off right after spring break, you know, and it's a my husband said to me this morning, it's it's April. It's officially April.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

It is officially April. It's crazy. Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

I know, I know. I do start to feel like the the year is flying by a little bit, but in a good way, I think, you know, things are warming up. Sort of. And then today. I know. And I'm kind of refusing to like I hit a point where I'm like, I'm not wearing a real jacket anymore. Like I will do a denim. Like, I'm wearing um, this is my variation of like, I'm wearing pants, but they're crop. I'm wearing a sweater, but it says beach. But it says beach, and I'm not, I will I will not wear a jacket. I have a scarf just in case. Yeah. But I was like, no, I'm done.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

It's bad. I know. The weather is crazy. And um it's like 15 seasons in one day or one week. Yep. But it's April.

Growing Up In Diverse Columbia

SPEAKER_02 1:12

The joy of Maryland, you know what I mean? For sure. Um, well, I'm so excited to have you here. I'm so glad that we got connected in the fall, first of all, and attending your big event in December, which we'll chat about in a little bit. Yes. Um but why I'm so excited to have you here is because um I want to hear more about well, I okay, I know the story now. Okay, but I'm excited to kind of like share with anybody that that doesn't know or didn't already know. Um, if you've heard about Columbia Care, it's great. Um, but I I mean I what I love about the podcast is I love an origin story. You know, and I know that's one of the first things I asked you, I was like, and because it was like we both had talked about like our COVID origination, you know what I mean? And you've grown tremendously since then. And that to me is so cool to see. You know, I mean, like, yes, like even I I know that I've grown tremendously from COVID too, but like what you've built for this community and the like you stepped away from teaching to grow this massive thing and the partnerships that you've gained along the way to you know the new like literal things that are being built in this community because of this organization. Like, this is just so freaking cool, and this is what I get so lit up and excited about. So, anyways, we have Erica here today. Yeah, so um tell me, tell us more about, you know, well, first let's go back, right? Um, tell you know, you're from Columbia, you're from Howard County. Tell us all about that journey first.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Okay. Um, well, I was actually born in New Mexico. Um, I was a Southwest baby, and uh we moved to Columbia on purpose. My parents sought out this community because of what it stood for, because of the diversity. Um, my parents are originally from New York City. Um, everything is very segregated there, and uh, after living on in the Southwest, um, and they were being transferred back here, they wanted to make sure that we were moving intentionally somewhere that had um a diverse population and where my brother and I would be able to experience a community like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Um, and not only did they seek out Columbia specifically, but they wanted me districted to Wild Lake High School. So we moved to a community that was districted to Wild Lake because um it was, you know, the most diverse school at the time, and uh my parents really want wanted me to have that.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Um and it really did shape who I am. Um, just you know, I was so fortunate to grow up in this community and have friends from all different backgrounds, all different um, every type of background you could imagine. Um and it also opened up my eyes to, you know, what we call the Columb bubble. The bubble of Columbia, where when you get out into the real world, you're like, oh my goodness, this is not Columbia. Um so I I did um, you know, I I was kind of a I would say I wasn't the greatest student back in the day. Who was? Not at all. I was a little bit of a rebel rouser and I learned all about civics, civic engagement at a very young age.

unknown 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

I was very invested in like sociology. Absolutely.

Student Protest And ACLU Legal Win

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And culture, uh, social justice, all that kind of stuff. Yes. Um I I kind of um I went through a lot in high school. Uh I was um very a challenging student for my teachers, and I um, you know, I I had my fair share of suspensions, expulsion, you know, I never expelled, never expelled, but yeah, definitely uh suspended, skipped school, all those types of things. Yeah. Um but I also was really engaged in the politics of the time where um we were moving from standardized testing to high-stakes standardized testing, where like your um your future, students' futures, and the evaluations of teachers were linked to standardized testing. And um there was a lot of there were a lot of changes that were being made in our school. Wildlife back in the day, I don't know if you know this, it was um it was a fine arts hub. So our like fine arts department was amazing because we had what we called supervised study. So Tuesdays and Thursdays, you could opt out of your core classes and take an entire day of fine arts. So our like dance program, our drama program, our choir, our um our madrigals, we were like the top in the we were actually like ranked in the country. We were amazing because we could dedicate those all that entire those two days. Yeah. Um, and if you didn't want to opt out of a core class, you didn't have to, right? You could and then those days you were actually given one-on-one attention from the teacher because there was no new learning happening those days. Yeah. Um, which was the cool, it was the it was unique to Wild Lake, no other school had it. Um, it was really amazing, and that's where I was able to kind of develop my I was in choir, I was in madrigals, that I and those were the days that kept me in school.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Um, because otherwise I probably would not have been s in school as much as I was. Right. And what happened at the time was they actually tried to um change because of the the pressure from this new standardized testing that was high stakes testing, they were gonna make it so that only students in honors and GT classes could opt out those two days. So if you were in a regular quote unquote class, you wouldn't be able to opt out. Oh and unfortunately, because of the system and because of what we see with tracking and um the ways that that um I'm gonna say racism kind of penetrates the school system, um, a lot of the students in the quote regular classes, I hate that label, I know, um, were black and brown students. And so it was it was uh going to be uh you know a huge negative impact on our black and brown students. And so I, along with other students, kind of rebelled against this policy change. Yeah. And it turned into this massive protest. We had walkouts and sit-ins, and I um there was an attempt by the school to to block us from doing what we were doing. Uh-huh. And I ended up getting uh uh uh what's the word, legally represented by the ACLU, and we won the case that said that students' First Amendment rights supersede school policy.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Wow.

From Rebel Student To Wild Lake Teacher

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Um so now students are able to, you know, protest and do all of you know their First Amendment rights um because of that case. And oh my god, Eric. That was my first lesson in civic engagement. Um, but then I I definitely had a rough time in school after that. Um I I think that, you know, the system wasn't too happy with me, and I was I was challenging. I challenged what I was learning, and so um, you know, I did all the the things that I shouldn't have done. And uh yeah. But I ended up wanting to come back and be a teacher. That's the part that I was like, you know how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

I knew the teacher part, but I didn't know that. But this is again, like these is these are the freaking nuggets that I love because I'm like, oh my god, this all makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yep. And so I, you know, I went away to school. Um luckily, um, I definitely my attendance was horrendous in high school. I should not have graduated, but I I, you know, I did because I had the privilege to do that. Um but I ended up I still had a good GPA. I ended up going to the University of Pittsburgh, um, and then I studied graduate grade school, um, studied political science, and then I ended up studying abroad in Costa Rica my last semester of college, so I didn't end up going to my graduation because I was in Costa Rica. Um and then I went back to Costa Rica for my master's degree in international law and human rights. Wow, lived there for a very long time, um five years or so. Yeah. Um and then I finally was like, I should probably use my degrees, and so I I I tried to there, didn't work out so well. Yeah. Um so I moved back here and um I I decided after I I think I had to sit with the fact my mother was an educator. I wanted to try to do something different, and then I realized, like, you know what? I I really would love to be in education um and kind of follow my mom's footsteps. The irony is not lost on me. My poor mother's so many layers of that, actually, but my poor mom, like, you know, being an educator, and she was a professor at Towson, so a lot of her students, and she was in the education um department. So a lot of her students were my teachers, like her former students were my teachers. And so, you know, imagine like the the college professor's daughter is like the rebel brouser of the school. Right, right, my poor mom. Um but yeah, so I I ended up going to Towson and getting my master's in teaching, and I was never in a million years did I ever think I would go back to Wild Lake to teach. Um, but I did, and I wanted to create an environment for my students that I felt I d I lacked in high school. Yeah. I loved Wild Lake, I was proud of Wild Lake, um, but I think you know, there they're you always remember those special teachers that made, you know, made you stay in school. Yeah. And I wanted to be that for for students. And I was able to kind of mesh my international law and human rights background and my um fluency in Spanish, my love for Latin American culture, and I taught Spanish, and that's what I did. So my gosh. Went back and somehow there was a position of a wild like in fact, my former Spanish teacher, um, Miss Dixon, who at the time was Miss Stanko, she was the best. I mean, she's like a legend in the county. Um, I ended up replacing her at Wild Lake, and she went and moved to the GT department. So I ended up uh replacing my former teacher who was the one that kept me. I mean, it was my choir teacher, Miss Adkins, um, and Miss Miss Stanko or Miss Dixon. Oh my gosh. And I ended up taking her spot and then she moved to GT and we got to teach together. Holy moly, what is Prin Morella's story?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

See, again, this is this is why I love this is why I do the podcast, why I love it, because again, like I knew, I think I knew from the the teacher part forward, but not the back story. Oh my god, that's so freaking cool. It was fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, it was definitely a crazy journey for sure. It always is, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Well, and good on you for actually using your degree, you know, we were like telling talking about that because I was like, you know, I mean, I have a master's degree in counseling psychology. I was gonna become a therapist.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

And like, you know, here I I mean, I guess we could I mean you kind of are. I mean, this is therapy.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Therapeutic for me, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

No, but I think you're definitely the skills that you have in that degree are definitely being used.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

They will find a way out. They they always do. So then how long were you teaching at Wild, like um, you know, prior to the transition?

SPEAKER_01 11:35

I was there almost 13 years. Wow. Um, yep. And uh same classroom the entire time. Well um, I loved it, I think uh, yeah, so 13, almost 13 years. Um I officially ended my teaching career uh 2022 and transitioned full-time to executive director.

COVID Sparks Columbia Community Care

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, you did, yeah, you did. Like we're like that like bump that like button, like you know what I mean? When I have like the fancy podcast studio, right? Yeah. Okay, well, so then like obviously you've been very immersed in the community. Like, I know that you saw a need well before you started creating something, but let's fast forward to COVID, right? Because that's when it like kind of really took root, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Um, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I I said I wanted to create an environment for my students that you know I needed in high school. Yeah. Um, and that is really about um, you know, creating a safe space for your students, creating an environment where they feel affirmed and seen and um you know able to to use their power and um and you had to I I was able to kind of build really strong relationships with my students and their families. And that was the most important thing to me as a teacher. It wasn't teaching Spanish content. I mean, that was important, but the more important part of teaching is you're teaching a human being with life experiences and talents and dreams and challenges and all of these things, and so that was my um my focus was always about making sure that my students um had there was trust and there was community in my classroom. And so my students were were um, you know, they would tell me all sorts of things about their lives, and I knew a lot of my students um, you know, worked part-time jobs to contribute to their household income. Um, a lot of them, the only meal they would eat, the full meal, was at school.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Um, and so I wanted to, you know, make sure that, again, safe space for them to share their stories, their truth. Yeah. Um, and so when COVID hit, you know, there was this period of time, it was about, I would say, like two weeks, maybe a week, um, where we were like, what is this virus thing? And the kids were like, we you know, there was like this idea that we were gonna get out of school for a couple weeks, and the kids were like, Oh great, we're gonna get out of school, and then all of a sudden it flipped to this is really serious and like people are dying and we're really scared. Yep. Um, and a lot of my students had already started losing their part-time jobs because businesses were already preparing, um, and they were really worried, like if schools close, like where am I gonna get my food? Where am I gonna get my meals? Yeah. And so the idea, I just posted something on Facebook and I was like, hey guys, if the if the schools close, who wants to collect donations to make sure our families are fed?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Um, never imagining that it would turn into a nonprofit organization. Like I literally thought it was gonna be a two-week operation.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Yeah, you were like, let me help let me just do what I can. Like probably like anybody, not like anybody, but you know what I mean. It's like, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

It was just it was a, you know, let's make sure that during these two weeks when schools are closed, expand together. Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Um and obviously that's not what happened. Nope. Um so we just started, I actually had a lot of former students help me, and we kind of so when the schools did close, um I did I created Columbia Community Care Facebook group the day schools closed. So I had posted a c three days before, like if the schools closed, then schools closed. So March 14th, I created the Facebook group and I said, Okay, we're gonna formalize this and make it somehow, you know, um just supposed to kind of like organize like all information once. And I had a whole bunch of people respond on Facebook, like, yeah, I'll help out. Um, people I didn't even know but were connected to me through whatever channel, whatever network I had created. Um and then we had former students who kind of scouted out different schools to see um the the the highest number of kids coming to pick up their meals because the school system still the the food uh uh the cafeteria workers still went in and our food service workers still went in and at every school? Yeah. Nah or but I'm not sure. I don't want to say I think it was at every school.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

I'm not sure. Well, either way, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

That's a really good question. I should probably know the answer to that, but I don't. Um but definitely there was, you know, the kids that needed to get their meals were still getting meals outside. So they were setting up tables outside, and it's not a good idea. That's like all in the budget, like paid for kind of um but the idea was if these kids are walking a mile and a half to get one meal, yeah, like why don't we make sure that there's groceries for them to take as well so that their families can sustain for longer than a meal, and maybe they don't have to walk that mile and a half there and back to get just a a meal. Right. Um and so the idea was to augment like what was happening um already, but but not to like replace the school system's efforts to top.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

No, no, it was like, you know, how can we make this really fruitful for the students that um A need this, but how can we, you know, help them benefit a little bit more? Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And so uh I had some former students who kind of like drove around and scouted out like the the schools that had the most amount of kids coming every day, and we set up shop at I think it was five different schools across the county, um, mainly in Columbia. Yeah. Um, and we were open, I I believe seven days a week at first. Wow. And we just started bringing donations and our home base was Swansfield Elementary School.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I was gonna say because um and I think you had told me this already, because we live um in Hobbes Glen around the coast, and my um in-laws live in Hickory Ridge, so I drive that every single day, basically. And so like without even again, I'd only lived in Columbia about a year then because we moved here in 2019. Okay. So, but like without even knowing what your organization was, I was like, I you could tell what it was from the road because and the operation, it was very consistent, you know what I mean? We saw it happening, yeah.

Food Logistics Donations And Deliveries

SPEAKER_01 17:31

And there was like a mile-long of people waiting for food. It was crazy. And so, I mean, it just showed what the need it showed that it exposed the need. I think the unique thing about CCC is that um it was an ex it exposed the need that we already knew existed. Right. Um, because you can't unsee people waiting in a line outside, right? And I think that um it showed the power of community and the power of love when we all come together to address a need and what can happen when that happens, right? Right. Um and so yeah, we just set up shop, we had uh uh hundreds of volunteers. A lot of folks were saying that it was good for their mental health because they were able to get out. Yeah. And we had to like, you know, every day the guidelines were changing, so we had to like adjust. Like I remember first it was like six feet and we were spraying everything with Lysol because they were saying that COVID was getting on the material packaging, and and then it was like you gotta wear masks that we adjusted to mass, and it was a six feet, so we just had to adjust every you know couple days and make sure that we were following guidelines, and it just happened, yeah. And that's that was the story, and I it turned into this, you know, I and then eventually I was you know teaching virtual teaching. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Um so How did you juggle both of those? Because it was rough.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Right, right. I was up at you know 5 a.m. Um getting everything set up at Swansfield and then rushing home and teaching, and then because we would we only had um a couple classes a day, so it wasn't like all day long. Yeah so I I was a it was a lot of the in-between. So I would get go to one, go to Swansfield, make sure everything everything was set up, rush home and teach, uh, rush back out to our sites, pick everything back up, rush back home to teach, and then go for a run. Like that was my day. Oh my god. Yeah, it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

How did you manage all the donations and like where like you know, I'm trying to think of like, I mean, at this point, now that it's grow it's established, right, and growing, like I feel like when you first start, it's easy to kind of do some collections, right? But now you're servicing a large population, so you need an even larger uh source of donations. So I mean it sounds like you had volunteers running the thing, but like how did you manage just like the flow of donations? Because I mean, now that you're literally the ED of an actual nonprofit, you know, it's kind of like a never-ending stream you need to maintain. So it's like, how did you manage that as well?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

It was a lot of different uh strategies. So we had um my kitchen was one. Yeah. My husband would come home. My husband does this frequently. He comes home and he just like looks at like what I've done in that, and he's like, okay, he just shakes his head and like he's walking.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

He's like, What are you doing? My husband's given me the same look not for the same reason, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, he's like, What are you doing today? Okay, you do you. Um but it was originally like a lot of the donations were in my kitchen. Yep. Um, on my front porch.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Um people were dropping some stuff there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Um uh what else we oh we had to get storage pods. Yeah. Um so we had storage pods at many of our different sites, so that was really helpful.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Um we had all of our perishables would go immediately. So like we never had perishables that were left over. It was always just like non-perishable cans, things like that. Um so anything, uh, you know, veggies, fruits, uh milk, eggs, all that stuff would go. Yep. Um people, a lot of our volunteers kept stuff in their cars and would like bring it back the next day. Um Yeah. I mean, it was pretty much storage pods, my kitchen, my front porch, and people's cars. Wow. Was was how we yeah, that's how we did it.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

And we're at the time, I mean, I'm sure it's still like well, I feel like now it's like grown and things like that because now you've got like established partners and things like that. Yeah. But um we're I'm guessing that they were the donations were all community level.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah, all community level. I forgot to mention, um, we realized early on we needed to do delivery um because we had a lot of ownership. Yeah. So we early on we were like, oh my gosh, we need a delivery. And so originally I was just doing delivery, like I would like someone would call, they would like give me an order and I would just grab what was available. And then we turned it into an actual uh functioning process. So we had two churches, New Hope Church in um down Guildford, and then um uh Bethel Korean Church in Elkott City. And those two churches actually ended up running our delivery service. So they kept a lot of donations as well and they set everything up the way that we did it at our sites, like a grocery store. Uh-huh. Um, and we had volunteers. I was doing at one point everything by hand. Like looking back, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Like I would have to just thinking about like the organization part of it. That's why I'm asking them like, how did you it was crazy?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Like now we have a tech guy that like everything is like we put in a Google form, it's goes to a spreadsheet, it connects to a volunteer. Like it's very it's a it's a specific process. At the time, I was literally taking orders, put writing them down, sending them out in a Google Doc to the it was crazy. Yeah. Uh it would take hours and hours a day. And if I didn't do it the night before, it wouldn't function the next day. So every single night I was I was running the system to make sure that our deliveries were getting done. But we had so it was Bethel and New Hope, and they set everything up.

unknown 22:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Um and it was amazing, amazing. We had uh, you know, I don't know how many deliveries a day, like 20, 30, 40 a day.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

And people were that's outside of the school stations that you were set up at. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

And so we still do that. We still have our deliveries. Um just a better system. Yeah, right and our churches eventually uh became churches again. So they started operating as churches eventually.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Well, I'm sure they also service their own needs. They do too, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, but they, you know, eventually they were like, we have to, you know, we have to go back to our services. And I was like, But thank you for they were amazing. I will I for will forever be thankful for what they did. Of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

So so this all like, you know, it just started with a Facebook post and then quickly exploded into a very large operation. And this was all in 2020, and then we quickly realized that COVID wasn't going away.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

So, you know, um, tell us about the evolution from 2020 to 22, because 22 is when you effectively walked away from teaching, but you also formalized your nonprofit. So kind of like talk talk us through the journey there.

The ALICE Gap And 501c3 Shift

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah. I think um, you know, uh the spark was COVID, but the need has always been there. And so we realized like once COVID kind of simmered down a little bit. Yeah. Um manageable code. Manageable code. The livable code that we were in there. Exactly. Um, we definitely realized like the need was still there. Um in fact, it was it it had kind of increased. Um, I think you know, the effects, the financial effects of COVID, yeah, the job loss, the everything that happened during COVID, like those effects were still lingering. Yeah. And not only that, like we have a population in this county. Um we now I know what to call it, but um it's called the Alice population, so asset limited, income-constrained employed. So these are families that have um full-time, you know, employed family members, um, but they are still unable to make ends meet in the county. And in we know that one in five um families are struggling with food in this county, and one in four children are. Um, and it's about twenty-five, it's grown to about twenty-five percent of the of the county falls under this Alice population, so they don't qualify for social services. Um they don't qualify for other um avenues, you know, SNAP benefits or anything like that. So we are literally the organization that is able to serve them because we do not ask for identification or proof of need. Um there's no application process. It's it's you know, we trust that the folks who are using our services need it. Um in fact, we recently did a survey uh just to kind of give ourselves more data.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Right, no, exactly. That always helps.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Um and it was, you know, really eye-opening, um, kind of confirmed what we already knew. Right. Right, right. But just that, you know, we're able to help families that are it's it they're choosing between like the rent and food. Um and so it's it's important because we we're able to help, like we have a really good relationship with the Howard County Food Bank. Yeah. And we'll get a, you know, sometimes they'll they'll say, Hey, we have extra donations, do you need? And sometimes they have families that they can't serve, so they'll send them to us. And so we're not, you know, we're trying to fill a need in the county. Yeah. Um, we make sure that all of our, you know, we take extra precaution for safety of our families, um, just with everything that's going on. Um, but you know, it's really about how are we um kind of not supplementing, but assisting with extra help for families that don't have anywhere else to go. Right. Um, and so we're all about community and partnerships and relationships, we're not about competition. It's we're not competing for hunger, like that's crazy. Oh my god, it's really about, you know, how are we able to best serve our families and we also address urgent needs. So we do transportation. Um, people will say, you know, I need a ride to the doctor or the grocery store or just you know, young people that are kind of stuck somewhere and have no way to get home. And so we we also do emergency transportation. Um any kind of like urgent need we can fill, we do. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So that so 20 to 22 realized, you know, this is this has become an a a you know, massively large organization that um is serving a need that maybe hasn't necessarily been met fully before. Um we had a name at the time, like we had grown. Right. Um, and so I had an attorney at the time that was saying, you know, um, luckily we had uh a law firm that that took us under pro bono. That's great. And the attorneys were like, look, all of our nonprofits in our pro bono department have the full-time the ones that have full-time paid EDs uh survive. The ones that don't, don't. Um and they were like, you really gotta make a choice whether you want to do this full-time or teach full-time, but you can't do both. And I really had to think about it because you know, I loved my students and I loved teaching my students, and I loved the my classroom. I didn't necessarily love the system. Oh, of course. Um at all. And I was already kind of struggling at that 13-year mark about like well, and you're entering COVID and then any little cracks that were there were yes, and we had an opportunity, I think, to do school different at that point um and kind of rethink how we do school and that didn't happen. And it was very frustrating. And I think at that point I was like, look, I can I can transition, um, but I knew I still wanted to do youth-centered work. So uh 2022 we formalized, became a 501c3. Um and then we started incorporating other things that matter to me. Wellness for moms. Yeah. So we do, you know, we have an event tomorrow night um that I can talk about in a little bit, but um youth mentorship and wellness for moms, and we say those who mother. So we you know, those are two things that really matter to us, and I think that it's all about like how the interconnectedness of everything. Yeah. Um our young people are struggling, and we want to provide holistic support for Power County families. And so we solidified, made CCC a 501c3 and uh expanded into youth programs and um we say community programs, but mainly focused around moms and women, and we say those who mother.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

So um that was that transition. Now it's what it is.

Partnerships Big Events And Bold Growth

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Isn't that crazy? Well, it's just, I mean, what a ride, you know what I mean? And and now, like, and I feel like it's you grew exponentially from 2020 to 22, and even from 22 to now. I can't believe we're in 2026. You know what I mean? Like crazy. Um, so talk about the growth from there, and you know, specifically like now your massive events that you've been putting on, and like now again, like you know, and now I feel like this is kind of the phase where you started like really um sounds like you orchestrated these these big county and state level, you know, um uh partnerships, really, because that's what's kind of really exciting to to see now.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, I mean, we've really been able to um, you know, I I I I I jumped into nonprofit not knowing anything about nonprofits, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:13

So I had to learn what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

I mean, yeah, I was learning as I was going. Um, I've learned a lot along the way. Yep. Um, I've had a lot of uh amazing other nonprofit leaders that have generously helped me figure this stuff out. Um so yeah, I mean, we build amazing partnerships. A lot of the partnerships that we were able to build were based off of our other, you know, career relationships. So um yeah, just you know, my board is amazing. Um a lot they're they're you know, completely different backgrounds in all different career professional spaces. Um, so they're able to lend expertise to the board. So we've been able to do some strategic planning, um, build a very solid budget and form really strong partnerships to solidify our programs to make sure that we're on the right track. Um and then most excitedly, yeah, we've we've we have some pretty cool relationships to throw on massive events. Um the Bon Bon, which is very fun. Very fun. Um and also uh very, very fortunate to have partnered um with some awesome folks to build a community center. And we just had a land blessing for the space, so it's the old Columbia Flyer building. Yeah. Um I've actually had this dream for well over a decade of having a community center. I think that rec centers and community centers save lives. And as a teacher, I and as a student, I remember that when we had nowhere to go or nothing to do, that's when we got into trouble. Literally. And so, you know, having a safe space for young people and their families to come and have access to all sorts of programs and resources was I've been wanting to do this for so long, and luckily, by the grace of the most high, I don't know how this happened, but it it actually came to fruition. And so we submitted an RFP for the Clubia Flyer Building. Um, and we we won it and with with incredible are amazing. And now it's becoming a 65,000 square foot community center. We're so excited for this. I cannot wait. So excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

I mean, I mean, like there's I mean, and I've already been I've already been talking to like, you know, uh the other, you know, members and and partners that are also just as equally excited for this, but it's you know, it's not just the organizations that get to be a part of it, but it's like for the community. Yeah, yeah. And that's what's just so incredible. Thank you.

The Source Community Center Vision

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yes, super exciting. The idea, you know, it's gonna be called the source. The idea is that it's I mean, there's a lot of reasons why we named it the source. Um but you know, the idea is you can come to the source and get everything you need in one place, yeah. Right. And so, yeah, it's for everybody. It's it's for you know, anyone who wants to come and you know, we'll have a a massive gym. Um, we're gonna have a food hall with like local, local businesses, um, which is I'm very excited about it. Yeah, it's gonna be so cool. Um we're gonna have content creation rooms and youth, you know, youth spaces and lounges and makerspace and game rooms and a relaxation reflection space. And yeah, so whatever your need is for the day, you can come and it's it's gonna be you know an open space for for young people to come and their families, and we'll have mental health care, physical health care. Um I'm really excited we have uh um across the street, um we have uh the new urgent care there, um Stephanie's one of my really good friends. I was so excited about that because now I you know if we have some sort of urgent need, we can send them right across the street and make sure that they're you know the dental is there, the um PT physical therapy, yeah, and urgent care. Um so you know, making sure that our partnerships are like right there, right? And they literally are.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

You're so accessible because that's your right off the toxin. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um like community college is there, it's a hospital is there, you know what I mean? There's just great, you know, right off 29, you know what I mean? Great accessibility.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

And we're right behind Wild Lake Middle and High. Yeah. Um everything's gonna be, you know, there are a lot of walkable, you know, make sure it's accessible for all. I am so excited, I cannot wait. This has been a dream come true. I I visited a community center in Chicago back in like 2014. Um, I think it was 2014, maybe a little bit later. Um but anyway, I walked in and I was like, this is what we need in Howard County. Like, why do we not have this? It was in a neighborhood called the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, and it was literally like right in the middle of like four uh gang territories. Um and the members would come to the community center and it was a neutral zone. So it was known like your affiliations stay at the door, um, and you have access to a ton of different services. They had woodworking shops, they had um mental health care, they had restorative justice, peace circles, um, you know, they had and you would have, you know, the entire community would come no matter what your background was, where you were from, and it was a neutral zone, and it was a safe space, and I it was it was amazing. They had a gym, they had a garden outside, they had a labyrinth outside, they had all different types of services, a food pantry, and I was like, this is so amazing. So cool. And young people had a safe space to go. Yeah. And I was like, we need this so badly, and right, um, yeah. So the fact that we're able to do this now is amazing. Right. I'm so excited. And it's gonna look really cool.

Build Timeline Land Blessing And Access

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Oh my gosh, it's gonna be I know, I know. And what's the time? I mean, I know builds take forever, but yeah, what's that timeline looking like?

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Um, so we're breaking ground um late Apr this late this month. Oh my gosh. Yeah, late this month. So it'll probably be a, you know, at least 18 months before it's like up and running. Right. Um at least. But yeah, we're we're you know, things are going smoothly. Um the community is really excited about it. Oh my gosh. The land blessing was so we decided to um bring together faith leaders across the county and just you know, bless the land and and you know, put our well wishes and prayers into the space for what it can be and what what we're hoping it will be. Um and it was amazing. Like all of these faith it was one of the most beautiful things I think I've seen in Howard County in a very long time. It was um leaders from all different denominations, all different faith traditions came together and blessed the land. It's amazing. It was beautiful. It was beautiful.

How Programs Will Run Across Sites

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Yeah, my gosh. I mean, I mean that just shows you, I mean, hey, the power of like I feel like our column bubble. You know what I mean? And like how much we love this area and kind of bringing that love to that space. You know? It was incredible. Um so now with the new community center, will some of your I mean obviously no part of the way you're operating was because it was COVID, because like schools were shut down and things like that. Will a lot of your um efforts now centralized to this or will some things still be operating?

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Yeah, so we're still gonna, yeah, so both. Um all of our programs we now have, you know, the biggest problem in the county is space. Everyone's always everything. Everything, everything, everything, right. Um so now we'll have our own space. So this is gonna be CCC's headquarters. Yeah. Um, our, you know, the operation so right now our headquarters is at Long Reach Village Center. It's a very, it's we're very fortunate that we have this space, but it's a very tight space, right? Like we can't get through as many deliveries as we want because we can only fit like five volunteers in the pantry area at a time to collect the the delivery orders. It's just a tight space. Um so we're our we'll have a new headquarters um where we can, you know, it'll be large enough that we can really get through our deliveries. We can maybe open five days a week instead of only three days a week. Um all of our programs, so our our youth mentorship programs, Stand and Push, that we're that we partner with, will have a home, so they'll be housed there. That's great. Um our you know, programs that we do for for mothers. Um we'll probably right now we're really fortunate that the um Harriet Tubman Cultural Center does our restorative um our community circles for mothers for those who might yeah. Um so probably some things we'll keep where they are. Um, you know, we we're really appreciative of that partnership, so but we'll also have an option to be, you know, now you'll be able to decentralize, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

Um and then we'll probably still keep our long reach uh well, we will keep our long reach distribution uh site, and then Oakland Mills will will definitely stay there too. Yeah. Um I don't the only kind of if is maybe Wild Lakes in person will move because right now we're at the Interface Center. Although we do love the Interfaith Center, and we love our partnerships, we love the the spaces we have right now. Um but probably a mix of both.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Probably, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. Well, and then like in that funny way, it's like if you know, for instance, like if you gave up the interface center that like allows space for something else, you know, to grow there too. But exactly because like I can see that like you know, geographically speaking, you'll be right there. But lots of options.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Yeah, for sure. Oh my god. But it's gonna be, you know, we can have parties there, we can have events there. Oh my god, we're gonna have like a large garden area outside. Um we've been really um intentional about ensuring that like the the mature trees are safe, that we're that we're growing. Yeah. We're growing. And then um, I forgot to mention I am on Tessori daycare is expanding, so they're gonna have, you know, we'll have kids there, and uh yeah, it's it's very, very exciting. Holy cow. I cannot wait. There's gonna be this was not my idea, but I'm not I'm not hating on it. Yeah. Um there's gonna be a wine bar in the middle of the first floor. Definitely don't hate that. No, don't hate that at all. I was like, that sounds great. Yeah, but yeah, so we'll, you know, for parents who so that we have two NBA size courts. Wow. Um so we'll be able to have like host tournaments and have um league practices, but also open gym. Yeah, you know, we want to make make this a place where young people can go after school. So we'll have to, you know, we'll we'll make sure that we have that open gym time, especially late night weekends. Right. Um, but yeah, we can host tournaments. We want families to be there, they can go, you know, access our food hall. Wow. Um, we have event spaces so people can do events. Oh my god, yeah, that's gonna be nasty. Yeah, it's gonna be really, really fun. Um I don't have an office finally. Yeah. I'm really excited about that. I'm really excited about that. I was like, can I have a um sauna and a balcony? And they were like, sure.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Yeah, right. Um I think you've earned it like you can use sauna.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

No, not not so much. Right, right, right, exactly. Oh yeah. Finally, finally have uh an office space, which will be nice. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

That'll be well, that'll be just be, like I said, so cool to be like centralized. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um I feel like in one way, I don't know. Like again, because I'm I feel nomadic with my work because I work everywhere and anywhere. Like, and sometimes like then like having an office, like it's like the big biggest lesson than like, oh now I like I go to the same space.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

I know it's gonna be a new venture. I do think that I'm like you. I I I actually don't I don't do well sitting in one space the whole day. Right. Um I'll probably but the fact that it's you know I can get up and go around to the community, you observe the programs, it was organized part of it.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

I feel like we're very similar, whereas like I am very B B plus. I can function. Yeah. I could I I like to say like I flirt with Taipei, like I need that structure, I need the spreadsheets and um on all that so that like because as long as those things exist, then I can be the chaotic like wind movement with it.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

And I'm you know what I'm most excited about? Yeah, all of my classroom stuff, like my my like stuff that was on the walls, all of my little cute artifacts like my memories from my students are sitting in boxes in my basement, and I can't wait to bring that to my office and decorate. Like I want to decorate and like recreate like all of the things that matter to me, the memories, and I'm really excited about decorating an office.

Staffing Dreams Shuttles And Future Plans

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Well, it's just like you know, create I mean, just like what you're doing for the community, cre dedicating your space, you know, like because our environments matter, just like we're literally talking about this. Like our environments shape ourselves, they shape the community, and you know, like you will be you'll you will still be nomadic. You'll just like you said, you'll just you're just gonna be an even more organized version of that because it like everything will have a place and you'll have you know have the office when you do need to sit for two seconds, you know what I mean? And and orchestrate all your calls and meetings that you're gonna be because I'm just realizing like once you have the space, you're gonna need like even more staff, I'm guessing, to specifically run this building.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Yep. And I have my list of uh staff, my dream list of who I want. Um many of them are former educators. Yeah. Or educators now. Yeah. Um, who I it's like the dream team of who I would want to be there. Um thinking about like who would be best in the building to um you know interface with our youth, make sure our young people are supported, right? Um make sure that there's like it's managed well. Um so yeah, I'm really um I cannot wait. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's super exciting.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Well, we know you know that our I will already get you back on here as we're getting as you know, once you know, a year from now when things are kind of getting a little bit closer, I know there's gonna be it's gonna be quite a ride as it always is. But you know, I mean 18 months still is like pretty quick when you think about building a massive organization like this.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

So yeah, and I've never I've never run a community center, so I'm you know, new territory. Girl, you're about to I know! What am I doing? What did I get myself into? Isn't that crazy? It is, but we want to make sure that everything like operationally is in place, like well before we open doors. Oh yeah. So that's really like a huge focus right now for sure.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Especially when you're, you know, organizing these kids and things like that. But I think what's really cool is that I like what I'm excited to see as you guys continue to grow, like you've already established all of these um relationships and and programming things like that. Like, now that you'll have the space, like I'm like, oh my God, you're gonna like there's already gonna be so many more partnerships. And things that are gonna come from having this space. And that's gonna be so cool to see that evolve too. You know what I mean? Like I'm just like again, like as a mom of like, you know, younger elementary school kids, I'm like, I can't wait to take them to a place. I mean, because we love going to the libraries and the different things that they offer there, that I'm like, I'm so excited to see what you guys will be able to offer there. You know what I mean? I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

And uh a really cool partnership that we have right now is with um the Community Ecology Institute Freetown Farm. We actually just got a plot of land to farm for it. Like it's gonna be in a Columbia Community Care plot. Uh-huh. Um, and they've done an amazing job when we were in the flyer building, like before um before we transitioned to Long Reach, they had built us an outdoor garden, um, community garden where we were growing our own food. Yeah. And so um I love the fact I I my dream is to like have free shuttles that like go back and forth between the source and like the free and Freetown Farm, the Source and the New Library, the Source and other village centers. And so I want to make sure that like everybody has access and that we're and then we're also giving access to other organizations that we partner with through some sort of like free shuttle. So I'm looking into this naming it now so that it happens.

How To Volunteer Donate And Stay Connected

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Well, and I I kind of feel I feel the energy because I know that you're definitely a person that, yeah, once you like you said, you you visited that community center. I mean, you didn't know at the time. You were you know what I mean? But it's just like that's the power. I feel it, because I'm like, I know, I know it's gonna come. Thank you. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, cheers to you, Erica. I'm so glad to have met you. So glad to get to witness this and you know, keep us posted for all you know, your amazing events. And um, for people that want to either learn more, donate, get involved, or just share with friends and family, where can they find out more about Columbia Community Care?

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Um, we are on all social media platforms. Actually, that's not true. We're on so we're on uh Instagram and Facebook. Yep. To me, that's all. That is all. Also LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn. Yeah. Um so just Columbia Community Care on those platforms, and then also uh Columbia Community Care.org has all of our volunteer signups. I did want to mention we are completely volunteer run. Amazing. You know, I'm the only employee. Right. Um, and so we do, you know, everyone is volunteer. It's we always need volunteers. Yep. So uh Columbia Community Care.org and then MARC calendars for December 3rd is gonna be our 2026 Bon Bon. Yep, yeah. Um performer to be announced, but it's gonna be someone amazing. Oh my gosh. Um, it's the best event of the year, it's really exciting. Sure it is, it sure is. Yeah, definitely buy a ticket, it supports us, it's our big fundraiser, and it's a part of our toy drive. So every year we do a big uh toy distribution for the county. Last year we had like over a thousand families come. Wow. So we have um it's a party, um, it's bring a toy. Yep. Uh, and so we can kind of do fundraising and provide the seasonal, you know, distribution as well. So amazing. That's it. Cheers! Well, thank you so much, Eric. Thank you so much for having me. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mom Talk Maryland. If you loved it, leave a review, share it with a friend, or tag me at the.columbia mom on Instagram. I'd love to hear what you think. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep showing up, keep supporting local, and keep being the incredible mom, woman, and human that you are.