Kick off the holidays, feed local families, and party with Grammy-winning hip hop icons Pete Rock and Treach of Naughty By Nature! Sponsored by the Jonathan Johnson Community Coalition, benefitting Columbia Community Care The BonBon Holiday Bash is Columbia’s biggest holiday party and one of Columbia Community Care’s most important fundraisers of the year. All […]
The Holiday BonBon Bash is Back! Read More »
For more than five years now, thousands of Howard County residents have been able to access healthy, fresh, and delicious culturally-diverse cuisine for free thanks to Columbia Community Care Inc. (CCC), a nonprofit organization founded by Erika Strauss Chavarria during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, Strauss Chavarria was a high school Spanish teacher at
Meet Erika Strauss Chavarria, Columbia’s Community Organizer Read More »
While many Howard County families have a local community association membership or they can afford to send their young people to camps, the county’s working-class families—some of whom are working multiple jobs and still struggling—continue to face financial barriers that make it more challenging for their children to have a place to go in the
Summer Youth Program Prevents Crime and Strengthens Self-Worth Read More »
Meeting the basic needs of Howard County residents is one of the tenets that drew Vaughn-Smith to supporting CCC, which provides hunger relief through food pantries and grocery delivery; mentorship and youth engagement through its STAND, PUSH and volleyball programs, and community connections to improve the well-being of everyone. Read more about his involvement.
Meet Board Member Matthew Vaughn-Smith Read More »
Rising Food Costs and Soaring Demand Are Straining CCC’s Hunger Relief Efforts When April Lee first started volunteering at Columbia Community Care (CCC) during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she thought she was signing up for a few months of purchasing food and supplies to donate while recovering from double knee replacement surgery.
“We Can’t Afford to Stop” Read More »
In the quiet moments before Columbia Community Care’s food pantry opens each morning, Jocelyn Ball and Sophia Smith are already hard at work. They might be arranging fresh produce deliveries, picking up items from Costco or Trader Joe’s, stocking and sorting items onto the shelves, or assisting volunteers who shop and deliver groceries to local
Service Year Spotlight: How Jocelyn and Sophia Found Purpose at Columbia Community Care Read More »
From Executive Director Erika Chavarria and CCC’s Board of Directors At Columbia Community Care, we remain steadfast in our mission to create authentic connections and community partnerships and to listen, and respond by providing resources and programs, while respecting the inherent dignity of every person. Since the Executive Orders issued in January, we have heard
Statement from Columbia Community Care on Recent Executive Orders Read More »
The Hard Choices Facing Howard County’s ALICE Families Imagine getting a paycheck, only to find that after rent, bills, and groceries, there’s nothing left. Then, an unexpected cost appears—your child needs to see a doctor, or your car requires a repair so you can get to work. What do you do? Skip groceries to afford
Invisible Struggles: Supporting Working Families on the Edge Read More »
