By Suzanne Pollak
Before Craig Rice ever worked for Ronald McDonald House or was elected to the Maryland General Assembly or sat on the Montgomery County Council, he was a salesperson for the Marriott in Bethesda.
“They had a nickname for me. They used to call me Congressman Rice, because I would always sit there and lobby Mr. Marriott about things I thought should be different about the company,” he says, explaining that he always wanted to “just be a voice.”
That voice, combined with a strong passion to help others, led the Montgomery Blair High School student to become a state delegate in District 15 from January 2007 to December 2010 and then a three-term councilmember, serving until 2022. He was the youngest African American to serve on the council and only the second African American.
He now leads Manna Food Center, a nonprofit striving to end hunger in Montgomery County. As CEO, he leads an organization that distributed 3.14 million pounds of food and made 8,805 household food deliveries during 2025. It also sent 108,300 weekly food bags home with students attending 76 Montgomery County Public Schools.
Curbing hunger is not an easy task, but Rice stepped into his new job at an even more difficult time than usual. No sooner had Rice accepted this position in February 2025, when the struggle to feed all those in need spiked. First, Elon Musk took a chainsaw to hundreds of thousands of federal jobs as part of his role with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Shortly after that, the United States Department of Agriculture cut the federal Farm to Food Bank and Farm to School programs. The Capital Area Food Bank took a huge financial hit, which trickled down to Manna receiving less food, Rice explains.
Most recently, Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program — or SNAP — benefits were cut as stricter work requirements and reduced eligibility resulted in many people receiving fewer funds.
Not only were newly terminated federal workers turning to Manna for the first time, but so were so many contractors and support workers, including the people that cleaned offices and served in cafeterias.
Manna quickly went from serving about 6,600 families a month to the current almost 11,000 families each month. Fortunately, Rice says the county and individual donations stepped up. “People felt that they couldn’t do anything else, and they wanted to make their money speak.”
Families unable to afford one or more meals a week are defined as food insecure. That accounts for 34% of county residents. Families who cannot afford three meals or more a week are considered severely food insecure. Between 15% and 20% of county residents fit that definition, says Rice, a father of three.
He cautioned people to look at the broader picture. Food insecure families tend to purchase foods that are not that healthy in an effort to make their money last longer. They have to think twice about going to less expensive stores outside of Montgomery County, because they can’t afford the gas to fill up their cars. They miss sitting down as a family and having those special bonding times as their food cabinets become emptier and their stress increases.
And, Rice emphasized, they are more than likely to be working at least one, usually two, jobs. Earning the county’s minimum wage of $18 is not anywhere near enough to live comfortably in Montgomery County, he says.
“The majority of families we serve work. They are employed. In fact, a lot of them have two jobs,” he says.
“Food is part of our culture,” he noted. It’s part of birthdays, holidays and other celebrations when families and friends come together. Providing meals “gives people dignity. It gives people respect. It’s about love.”
Usually, when a family is food insecure, they also are housing and healthcare insecure, Rice says. Often, they end up in a spiraling whirlpool of debt that is hard to recover from. That is why Rice doesn’t believe food insecurity will lessen anytime soon even if new federal legislators are elected.
Therefore, Rice will continue passionately advocating for and providing food to those in need. And for those who are doing well, he will just as passionately make sure they understand how real the need is in Montgomery County. Not everyone can go buy an electric car and plug it in at their home when gas prices spike. Not everyone can go to sleep without worrying about how they will feed their family.
“We need to be reminding folks of about how expensive it is to be in the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Because when we start to look at those things and start to add them up, then we start to understand what it is that truly people are facing and why people are struggling.”