Covid pandemic intensified hunger in D.C. and Maryland. Now, there’s a push to end food insecurity for good.

There was Kristina Smith, 33, a former bartender; Justin Garcia, 22, whose final job had been at a health gymnasium; Jonathan Marcus, 25, an aspiring medical scholar; and Marko Oven-Rivera, Rivera-Oven’s 24-year-old son, who had been laid off from his job at an optometrist’s workplace when the pandemic hit. The paper baggage they had been handing over to folks had been packed by one other employees member, Nikki Haddad, 58, who, pre-pandemic, labored as a private chef.