EDITOR’S NOTE: During the coronavirus pandemic, there are people throughout the community working on the front lines. WTOP is honoring essential personnel through its Frontline Heroes campaign. Each day, WTOP chooses two nominees, awards each $100 and donates another $100 to Feed the Fight DC, a D.C.-based nonprofit supporting local restaurants, health care workers and first responders during the pandemic. Some of those honorees will be spotlighted on WTOP.com.
When the coronavirus pandemic throttled the U.S. economy and many people found themselves without a regular paycheck, one of WTOP’s Frontline Heroes stood ready to help.
Barbara Glover is volunteer manager of the Ladies of Charity Food Pantry in North Beach, Maryland.
“The number of people that we have served has increased … We’re probably seeing 50% to 60% more people,” said Glover, who has managed the pantry for the past five years.
The food pantry has a proud history in the small, Calvert County communities that lie on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, about 30 miles east of Joint Base Andrews. It has fed those in need for more than 50 years.
“It feels good to be able to give to people. It feels good to be able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with people in the community,” Glover said.
As the economy sagged and more people needed help, Glover had to adapt longtime procedures to fit the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senior living facilities where volunteers made weekly deliveries were now closed to outsiders, and operations at the pantry needed to be conducted under the Gov. Larry Hogan’s rules of social distancing.
“It’s been a challenge to figure out how do we do this,” Glover said.
But Glover and her volunteers are getting it done.
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The man who nominated Glover, Chris Doherty, of Dunkirk, Maryland, knows what it means to lend a helping hand. He’s one of the volunteers who helps deliver food for the Ladies of Charity Food Pantry.
Doherty credits Glover with “tireless work,” managing and coordinating volunteers, donations, and weekly and monthly food distributions.
What more could be said about this Frontline Hero than that said by Doherty: “She is a wonderful person devoted to the mission of feeding those in need.”
Know people who would be good candidates for WTOP’s Frontline Heroes award? Nominate them online, and their actions could be recognized on-air.
