During the pandemic, Feed Howard County is partnering with local churches, community groups, businesses and political leaders to support local restaurants and families in need
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) today announced a donation of $40,000 to the Feed Howard County program, to provide food assistance for families in need throughout Howard County. This donation is the first major contribution from a private organization, although Feed Howard County has been accepting small, personal donations from private contacts since the effort began in April of 2020. COPT’s donation will provide 3,600 meals and will support the initiative through Spring of 2021.
Feed Howard County is a program designed to work with local restaurants to provide healthy meals to those in need and is an initiative developed in cooperation with the Howard County COAD, county and state officials and other regional non-profits. COPT, a real estate investment trust, worked with Feed Howard County to involve three of their restaurant tenants; Fiero Mexican Street Food, AIDA Bistro, and Abbey’s Gourmet Deli.
The Feed Howard County program raises funds – and uses those funds to buy nutritious meals from local restaurants who are struggling to stay open during these challenging times. Donations serve a threefold purpose; helping families in need, helping local restaurants to stay open and helping their employees.
COPT Design Manager and Chair of Corporate Contributions Mark Wendell said, “It has been a true privilege to work with Feed Howard County to ensure the members of our community remain fed. The past year has posed endless obstacles for all of us and anything that COPT can do to lighten that weight is a priority for us. Feed Howard County was an obvious choice, as it is based where we are headquartered and allowed us to provide additional help to some of our restaurant tenants.”
On January 27, Abbey’s Gourmet Deli will provide and deliver food to families in need at the Howard Crossing Apartments in Ellicott City, Maryland. This event will take place at 4pm in the parking lot of the apartment complex and cars will be able to line up to pickup the meals in a safe and socially-distant way.
Pat Curran of Feed Howard County said, “When we began Feed Howard County in April of 2020 we had no idea we would still be operating well into 2021. The simple idea of supporting local businesses -and those who are struggling during this time - seemed like the least we could do to help our neighbors in need. This generous donation from the COPT organization allows us to plan our meal deliveries for several months, and lets our restaurant partners know we will be there to support them and their employees as we continue to work our way through this ever-changing landscape. Most importantly, it allows us to deliver nearly 4,000 meals to families in Howard County! Our gratitude to Mark and the entire COPT team is immeasurable.”
The Howard County COAD was formed to improve the awareness of the needs of the community and connect those needs with organizations that can provide support. The goal of the organization is to organize and deploy community resources in an efficient and timely manner during each phase of a disaster.
About Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT)
COPT is a publicly traded real estate company that specializes in developing and operating office buildings in locations that support the United States Government and its defense contractors, as well as organizations in the information technology and cybersecurity industries. For more information, please refer to www.copt.com.
About Feed Howard County
Feed Howard County is a partnership between COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) and Howard County restaurants, which has launched its efforts to help feed families who are food insecure during these challenging times. The idea is simple – pay restaurants across Howard County to prepare nutritious meals for those in need. The end results create a win-win-win: Keeping people fed; keeping people employed; and keeping businesses afloat. To learn more about Feed Howard County go to www.feedhowardcounty.org and join us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
