Do Good Spotlight: Jessica Nichols ’01

On a chilly February day, Jessica Nichols ’01 rolled up her sleeves to fix a broken refrigerator—not in her home, but in the food pantry she helps run as chairperson of Columbia Community Care (CCC). It was another task in a long list for the Howard County Teacher of the Year, who balances teaching, advocacy, parenting and nonprofit leadership.

“I’m a professional plate-spinner,” says the College of Education alum. “I have to keep a pretty strict schedule. And, I always have to have space in my schedule because there might be something that happens.”

“Something” for Nichols has included everything from fixing appliances to distributing food to families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic–how CCC got its start. The founder, one of Nichols’s colleagues from teaching, Erica Strauss Chavarria, simply put out a call to help on Facebook.

“It was just a little call that said, ‘Hey, if schools shut down, I volunteer to drive food to students. Who’s with me?’” Nichols recalls. “And I was like, Oh, heck, yeah.”

From there, Nichols and fellow volunteers set up lunch feeding sites. Then, they began delivering groceries to families in need. Now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, CCC has fed more than 170,000 Howard County residents and provides holistic support for families through feeding sites, food delivery and other community services.

“I grew up food insecure. My mom was a single parent,” Nichols explains. “I don't want anybody to ever go through what I went through.”

The next step for the organization is opening a state-of-the-art facility near the Mall in Columbia with space for local children to engage in mentorship programs, a gym, a makerspace and a community garden, as well as house its pantry, which feeds 250 to 800 people every week.

When balancing a growing nonprofit with her classroom responsibilities, Nichols often thinks back to an experience from CCC’s early days.

“I put food [on a resident’s porch], and I heard this little girl's voice, and I saw her little eyes, and she said, ‘Mommy, the food lady is here. We're going to eat tonight.’” Nichols says. “That's what keeps me going. Until there are no little eyes waiting for us to bring that food, I will figure it out, and I will work tirelessly and relentlessly. "Nichols says her time at Maryland gave her a foundation of care and connection that led to her belief in the Community Care Model. “It wasn't just the education, it was the family atmosphere, and the individual care and attention that I received from all of my professors,” she recalls.

For current students and fellow alums, Nichols offers a simple but powerful message: lift others up.

“My organization started as a folding table outside of a school,” she says. “One small idea can literally change the world. And if we all go and put our tiny ideas into action, then the world that we live in will radically change for the better.”