Shazia Rajan thought she knew what hunger looked like. During her time in Mumbai from 2016 to 2018, she volunteered with an organization called Robin Hood, picking up food from restaurants and delivering it to people living on the streets and in slums.
But when she returned to her adopted home in Columbia, Maryland, she didn’t expect to find the same need. “Prior to CCC, I did not realize how many people actually needed help,” says Rajan, a realtor and Columbia resident since 2000.
That realization led her to join Columbia Community Care’s board of directors just a few months ago.
From Volunteer to Board Member
Rajan first encountered CCC during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she saw the organization on social media. She volunteered once, picking up food from restaurants and delivering it to pantry sites, and was immediately impressed.
But it wasn’t until she ran into Executive Director Erika Chavarria at a friend’s house that the connection deepened. Rajan had always wanted to join a nonprofit organization, though initially at the service level rather than as a board member. But after attending a few CCC events with Erika and board member Stephanie Lightfoot, she started to believe she could bring value to the organization.
“Erika and Stephanie thought I’d be great in the external affairs side, which led them to recommend my name for the board,” Rajan explains.
A Surprising Education
One of Rajan’s most important lessons came during an outreach event with Erika, when she noticed the Maryland Food Bank had a booth nearby. Confused, she asked Erika a question that many people wonder: Why does CCC exist when the food bank is already there?
“I was like, don’t they do the same thing? Why are we repeating this effort?” Rajan recalls. Unlike the Maryland Food Bank, which requires people to qualify to receive services, CCC serves anyone in the community who needs support—no questions asked, no income verification required.
“I have been educating every single person in my circle ever since then,” she says.
Now when she talks about CCC to people in her network, she has a clear message: “While there is availability through the food bank, CCC is helping people who are also a part of our community and need that extra support.”
For Rajan, the parallels between her work with Robin Hood in Mumbai and CCC’s mission in Maryland are striking. Both organizations focus on the logistics of food—collecting it from sources where it would otherwise go to waste and delivering it to people who need it.
But there’s also a key difference. In Mumbai, the need was visible, with people living on the streets and poverty that is impossible to ignore. In Howard County, one of Maryland’s wealthiest counties, hunger is hidden.
She’s learned that even in affluent communities, families are struggling. Parents are making impossible choices between paying rent and buying groceries. Children are going to school hungry. Seniors are skipping meals to afford medication.
A Network for Good
As a realtor, Rajan is naturally connected to people throughout the community. Her role on the board leans into those strengths, focusing on networking and spreading awareness about CCC’s work.
“My main job as a board member is to work on the ground and network and tell people about CCC,” she explains. Rajan is particularly enthusiastic about introducing people to CCC who might not otherwise know about food insecurity in Howard County. Many of her clients and professional contacts, like her, live in that “pretty circle” where everyone seems fine.
Rajan is still new to her board role, and she’s eager to deepen her involvement. One of her personal goals is to spend time working directly at one of CCC’s pantry sites, getting a firsthand look at the families being served.
She’s also impressed by how CCC is sharing its story. “I just started following CCC on Instagram and there’s some good work going on,” she notes, pointing to the organization’s growing presence on social media as a way to reach more people who want to help.
For someone who thought she left food insecurity work behind in Mumbai, Rajan has found her purpose renewed in Maryland. The faces may be different, the setting more suburban than urban, but the need is just as real, and the impact of CCC’s work just as vital.
“You always have to give back where you live,” she says simply. And in Columbia, Maryland, that means making sure no family goes hungry, no matter how hidden that hunger might be.
