In Affluent Maryland County, Pandemic Exacerbates Food Insecurity

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Volunteers from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda help hand out food to a local resident at an event earlier this month.





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Drivers line up to receive food distribution in Bethesda. Food insecurity has increased in Montgomery County since the start of the pandemic.





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Some of the federal funds Montgomery County received from the CARES Act have gone toward food insecurity efforts like Nourish Now, a nonprofit based in Rockville, Md.





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Volunteer John Ross sees the effort as something beyond the transactional delivery of food to those in need. «It’s the care that comes along with this too, he said.





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Volunteer John Ross sees the effort as something beyond the transactional delivery of food to those in need. «It’s the care that comes along with this too, he said.


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In late April, Montgomery County received about $183 million in federal funds after Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act that Congress passed a month earlier. A portion of that money has gone toward small businesses, rent relief, child care, public transportation and food assistance programs, including Nourish Now.

Still, Friedson said, «it’s nowhere near enough.

While feeding the food insecure is the goal of Nourish Now’s distribution event, volunteer John Ross said it’s about more than just the food — «it’s the care that comes along with this too.

«COVID and the economic disruption is an equal across-the-board disruptor of people’s lives, said Ross. «What we want to do out here, too, is show people that people care … that we’re all together in this and we all need to be part of that.

NPR’s Kira Wakeam, Eliza Dennis and Natalie Friedman Winston produced and edited this story for broadcast. Emma Bowman produced it for the Web.