‘The demand is high, the need is great’: Howard teacher organizes donation drives to help during coronavirus pandemic

By: Ana Faguy

Quandra Natalie Hodge of Columbia makes a selection from the donated food and household items at the Columbia Community Care table set up in front of Lake Elkhorn Middle School in Columbia on Thursday, March 26.

By 10 a.m. every day, Columbia resident Erika Strauss Chavarria is out the door.

With her trunk filled to the brim with diapers, boxes of pasta and cans of vegetables, Strauss Chavarria collects the text messages and Facebook direct messages she’s received since the previous day to map out her route, and she’s off.

Maneuvering through Columbia neighborhoods, she gathers donations from people’s doorsteps and, by 10:45 a.m., she’s parked at Swansfield Elementary School.

Like many Americans, the spread of the new coronavirus means that Strauss Chavarria has been thrown out of her regular routine as a Spanish teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia and has settled into a new normal. For Strauss Chavarria, that means organizing a daily donation drive at five locations for Howard County residents in need.

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