Leaders Break Ground On Route One Corridor Campus

JESSUP, MD — State and local leaders broke ground Friday for the Council Action Council's new Route One Corridor Campus.

Located within the Route One Corridor at 7525 Montevideo Road in Jessup, the campus will feature a new flagship Food Bank facility and Early Childhood Education Center. While the campus will serve residents across Howard County, the campus will increase access to critical services for families living in Elkridge, Jessup, Savage and North Laurel, which is one of Howard County’s highest-need areas, leaders said.

“Today, we mark the beginning of a project that will strengthen families, uplift communities and make Howard County a more supportive place for all who call it home. As this Route One Corridor Campus rises, it will become more than a building. It will become a place of dignity, where parents know their children are cared for, where neighbors can access healthy food and where families receive the support that allows them not just to survive, but to thrive,” Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said at a news conference.

In the last five years, CAC’s Food Bank location in Columbia and associated pantries, provided more than six million pounds of food and seen 94,000 shopping visits. In 2024 alone, this location served more than 5,000 people – that’s approximately 100 families per day – and distributed roughly 1.2 million pounds of food. With its limited interior space and just seven parking spaces, CAC’s Columbia Food Bank is over-capacity and unable to meet growing community demand, leaders stated.

To help ease the load, CAC’s new Route One Corridor Campus Food Bank will be nearly double the size of its Columbia counterpart at approximately 12,000 square feet. The new facility will replicate the client choice shopping experience found at local grocery stores and will feature an excess food storage area.

The campus also will be home to CAC’s new Early Childhood Education Center. This approximately 6,000-square-foot facility will allow CAC to provide nearly 80 children from six weeks to five years old with an early childhood education. The Early Childhood Education Center will feature two infant care rooms hosting six children each, two toddler (age one to two) rooms serving 12 children each and two three-to-five-year-old rooms benefiting 20 children each.

“Let today be more than a celebration. Let it be a call to action. A moment where we recommit to showing up, working together and lifting up every neighbor who calls Howard County home,” said Jackie Scott, director, department of community resources and services. “This groundbreaking is not the finish line. It is the beginning. And together, we are just getting started.”