to have the more contagious virus strain from the united kingdom. the state reports he has no history of travel. florida is now the third state after colorado and california to identify a case of this more contagious variant. and los angeles county's health director says this mutant variant is likely already in their community considering more cases of the strain were just found in california. even worse, l.a. county just reported its deadliest day from this pandemic on thursday. erasing the record it set on wednesday. and right now, hospitals in l.a. county are facing intense pressure from waves of new patients. i want to start with our reporters on the ground. msnbc's steve patterson is in hard-hit los angeles county where a person is dying every ten minutes from this virus. and nbc's shaquille brewster is at bradley international airport in windsor locks, connecticut, where they are testing travelers after holiday gatherings. first of all, happy new year to

you both. steve, i'll start with you. the new year is only bringing more troubling news for los angeles county as it fights this pandemic. so what are you seeing there? >> kathy, it's gotten to the point in this crisis where i have to start off with the overwhelming amount of death and what to do with the dead. private mortuaries and funeral homes have now gotten to the point where they're so overloaded with bodies that they have to turn away bereaved families. the county has shattered its single day death toll, now three days in a row. let me put it to you like this. the national guard has been called in to assist with hospitals and in some cases, there are an extra pair of hands for nurses and emts but their primary function in a lot of cases has been to move bodies from hospital morgues because they are so overloaded with the overwhelming amount of bodies to a county storage location, somewhere else where they can free up more room to treat patients. that's the situation now at hospitals. they are so overloaded that emts

and ambulances in some cases have to wait seven to eight hours to unload patients. sometimes there are hospitals where you'll see ten ambulances stacked back to back to back waiting for any sort of room or space to free up so they can treat those patients. and then when they get inside, they have to be treated in places that no one thought possible just a few weeks ago. we've been speaking to health care workers. they are trying to put out the message to as many people as possible to socially distance, to stay indoors because of how bad this has gotten and how overloaded they are. here's one talking about the crisis situation at their hospital. listen to this. >> the last four weeks especially since thanksgiving and i have never seen a health care system pushed to the level that we're at. we're just treading water. the best way to describe it that i could tell a friend recently was it's like treading water from 100 feet below the surface.

you're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do. >> it's no longer the very old and the very sick being hospitalized. from the age group of 18 to 29, their hospitalization numbers have shot up 380%. so in l.a. county, nobody is safe here. back to you, kathy. >> hospital is pushed to the limit there. steve, thank you. and shaq, connecticut, we're going to switch gears now. ended the year with an elevated positivity rate and now testing travelers is front and center. what's going on there? >> kathy, as soon as passengers leave their plane, leave the gate, they see signs encouraging them to go and get that coronavirus test right in the baggage claim area. and we know that despite the warnings from the cdc, despite the dire situation that you just heard from steve that you see not only in l.a. but across the country, we know that holiday travel has been elevated. we just got new numbers from the tsa that showed since the day

after christmas, up until yesterday, more than 1 million people went through tsa checkpoints each day. that record broken just yesterday when it was 870 people that went through the tsa checkpoints. those are numbers we simply have not seen since before the pandemic. it's not the normal holiday travel we'd usually get but those elevated numbers are a reason that you hear medical experts concerned right now because those are opportunities for spread. that means people have been engaging in those holiday gatherings. so testing is part of it. and also monitoring what happens after those holiday gatherings. i just got off the phone with one of our medical contributors who explained that what we see right now, those numbers are not even the full picture. we know many testing sites across the country are closed today, were closed yesterday because of the holiday. we saw the same thing during christmas. it won't be for a couple of days, possibly several weeks before we get a full extent of where we are right now.

and then the potential surge after those holiday gatherings. when you look at things, look at the picture, where we are, what we know, it's a reason many people are concerned because they are saying it can only get worse at this point. kathy? >> shaq brewster and steve patterson covering this crisis from coast to coast. thank you to you both. now i want to bring in dr. kavita patel, a physician and former obama white house health policy director. she's also an msnbc medical contributor. dr. patel, happy new year. good to see you. we heard from both our correspondents. clearly, despite the warnings, people are still traveling. and we saw them traveling for the thanksgiving holiday, the christmas holiday. so how could we see this virus rear its head in the new year, in the coming weeks? >> yeah, kathy. happy new year to you and the team. i think what we're seeing is playing out, in part, with this variant from the uk which is popping up. by the way, just colorado, california, florida, are only a

handful of places if we truly believe, which i do, that we now have community transmission. so what that means is we have kind of lagged behind as shaquille and steve pointed out, several weeks because of testing delays. and it takes awhile to get the virus into your system and then lead to hospitalization. so this could play out well into march with increased hospitalizations, increased deaths and, let's be clear, it will be a little bit worse than even what we had feared because of this potentially more transmissible or more infectious strain of the virus. and i think that's worth noting. it's another reason that people, even still today, kathy, i know we'll have a lot of travelers and people returning from locations. best thing they can do, the cdc recommends testing and quarantining, even if there's no requirement in your state to reassure that you are truly negative or do not spread it to anyone. >> dr. patel, i want to go back to the more contagious variant

in the united states. the latest being in florida. are you concerned about it becoming the dominant variant of this virus because it is more contagious and amplifying the strain on our hospital systems? >> yeah, that's absolutely a concern. by the way, when it showed up in the uk, many of us were already concerned that it was here in the u.s. just because of global travel patterns. so it does -- this new variant of concern is something to continue to watch. i hope that we can do more genetic sequencing to understand what the extent of the spread is. the united states has trailed behind several weeks from some of the patterns in the european union and the uk and we're picking that up now, kathy. and i do think it's worth noting, however, doesn't necessarily lead to more severe disease but, of course, if something is more infectious, more people get it, more people are in the hospital and unfortunately, more death. >> i want to switch to the vaccine. obviously, it's giving us all hope but the rollout has hit

some snags, including a shortage of public health staffers able to administer it. in arizona, we learned 4 out of 5 doses that arrive in that state by early this week had not been used because of that shortage of trained personnel to give the shots. so what needs to be done to close the gap here? >> yeah, it's an incredibly relevant question. candidly all across the country. it's why you're hearing the united states having conversations about just trying to give people one shot and just get it out the door for that exact reason. but if you don't have trained personnel, and that includes pharmacists, people trained in giving shots, which in my clinic, we do, medical assistants, nurses do. but if you don't have those personnel, you can't get those shots in people's arms. we need to rapidly deploy in places like arizona and probably many rural and urban parts of the country a public health service corps. they're ready, activated. medical reserve officers of all types, of all kinds of

clinicians are also available. they are, obviously, helping in some of the field hospitals in california, texas, tennessee and other parts of the country. we still have a readily deployable workforce that can help solve this problem but it's going to take funding and it's also going to take a little more federal effort and heft into leaning in to helping these states. states can't do it on their own as you've heard from arizona and several other states. >> we need all the help we can get. 2020, obviously, a difficult year for a lot of people. perhaps none more so than for our frontline health care workers. i want to play what some of those men and women are saying about the hard lessons they learned and their hopes for 2021. >> this year has been filled with a lot of really hard lessons. >> to just make every moment, every minute of your day memorable. >> not to take the little things for granted. >> to appreciate family and loved ones. >> that i am more resilient and i have more fight in me than i ever imagined. >> i want us to have learned

from this experience. >> social justice on equity for all and that is one of the most amazing things of 2020. and i'm hoping that doesn't die in 2020, that that will continue and it will continue to grow. >> that we don't go back to normal. >> to contend with some of those deep-rooted issues. >> we've needed that for so long. >> don't let this world harden your heart. >> just really love one another and take care of each other. >> we can get through anything. >> no matter what comes in 2021, bring it on. because i got this. >> dr. patel, you've been right there with them on the front lines and also kept us informed throughout this crisis. so what is your hope for the new year, and where do you hope to see us today, starting today? >> well, starting today, i hope that we unfold a new chapter, not just with really helping each other tackle this virus in

the form of, you know, continuing to support our health care systems and getting the vaccine out. but candidly, i really do hope that we can start to shift to kind of recovery phase for our country. that includes healing of all people. i don't know a single human that hasn't been affected even if they haven't been kind of, you know, listening to the public health precautions. as you pointed out, we've had 1 in 1,000 die. almost everybody i know, knows somebody or has been infected. so i'm hopeful we can come through with resilience and that empathy that you saw displayed in those videos. and also focus on kind of the mental health needs of the world and return back to kind of a global conversation. this virus didn't happen to just the united states. it's hitting us harder for a lot of different reasons, but we can think of 2021 as the year of recovery. and that includes kind of -- i think of health and all policies. that includes health in energy, climate, health in economic recovery. we've seen that, kathy. our country got ground to a halt

essentially because of this health crisis. but our recovery is going to come from, i think, the innovation as well as the resilience of health care. >> on that note, this fight isn't over. dr. kavita patel, thank you. >> thank you. the biden team is again alleging the trump administration is obstructing the transition. but the trump administration is denying it. we'll have the latest straight ahead. as we get closer to the critical georgia senate runoffs, heavy hitters are coming in to stump for the democrats. (sneeze) skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! and mine's unlisted.. try boost® high protein... -with 20 grams of protein for muscle health- -versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. and now enjoy boost® high protein in café mocha flavor.

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georgia democrats are bringing out the big guns in advance of tuesday's senate runoff election. president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris will each make appearances to campaign for the democrats in both races. senator david perdue faces off against jon ossoff and kelly loeffler face offs against

reverend raphael warnock. president trump will attend a rally for the incumbents on monday. we get the details now from priscilla thompson and emily sussman, former vice president of campaigns for the center for american progress. priscilla, happy new year to you. there's been a new development with senator perdue going into quarantine due to covid-19 exposure. so what's the latest? >> kathy, happy new year. that's right. senator david perdue was not on the trail yesterday and then we got a statement from his campaign yesterday afternoon saying that the senator had been notified on thursday morning that he had had exposure to someone who tested positive for covid-19 and that statement goes on to explain, quote, both senator perdue and his wife tested negative today, so thursday, but following his doctor's recommendations and in accordance with cdc guidelines, they will quarantine. we don't have any further

details on when senator perdue may have been in contact with this person or how long he will quarantine, but of course, the president will be here rallying on monday. senator perdue was expected to be there with him but it's unclear now if he'll be able to attend that rally or not. kathy? >> priscilla, this comes at such a critical time. what can we expect in the days leading up to tuesday's election? >> an incredibly important time. we are just getting new numbers from georgia's secretary of state's office. as of close of polls yesterday, the final day of early voting, more than 3 million georgians have cast ballots in these crucial senate runoff races. that's an all-time record for any runoff that has been held in this state and these candidates are not letting up. this is a race that's going to hinge on turnout, and they are very aware of that. and so that's why you see most of the candidates, with the exception of david perdue who is now quarantining, are going to be out on the trail reminding

voters to get those absentee ballots in and encouraging them to turn out on election day. of course, we know that president-elect biden and president trump will both be in the state on monday, really giving one final push before election day. kathy? >> there's so much at stake. and emily, we said earlier, there are a lot of political heavy hitters being brought in. just in the last few days, obviously, because there's so much at stake here. michelle obama being one of them sme . she was recruited to record a robocall. >> hello, georgia. this is michelle obama reminding you that you have the power to change things in the upcoming senate runoff election. i'm asking you to vote for reverend raphael warnock. >> in addition, former president obama, along with john legend appear in an ad for jon ossoff. could they make an impact here? will they move more democrats to the polls? >> i would be thrilled if i got a call, even a robocall from

michelle obama. i think it may engage people in ways they hadn't before. but the strategy in the runoff is different than the way most runoffs work. generally in a runoff election you just go back to your voters you had before. go back to your base voters and remind them to vote again. you know they like their candidate. that is definitely happening this time and that's what i think the strategy of using former first lady michelle obama, former president and john legend is to do. but in this case we're actually seeing there are new voters. there are new voter registration which is really interesting. and not something that you see in a lot of runoffs. and that's where a group like stacey abrams' fair fight, new georgia project where a lot of local groups are involved with nonpartisan voter registration have been making an impact on the ground. they tee up the new voters and the campaign and party can take it out and actually bring them in to vote. the campaigns are still doing ballot chase on the absentee ballots, even though early voting stopped. they're looking to the

candidates, warnock and ossoff, to really be reaching out to the new voters and persuasion voters to make sure they're capturing every possible vote out there. yes, voter turnout is high but still below the general election. there are still voters through the to be had. >> emily, so much on the line if the democrats don't win both seats, republicans will remain control of the senate. what will that mean for the biden agenda? >> it means everything for the biden agenda, to be honest. i think we even saw what president-elect biden had been rolling out even up to election day in terms of what policies and floating who they may have in the cabinet versus seeing the senate makeup, knowing the senate will have to confirm cabinet level positions. it's changed a little bit. so i think it means everything. not just for what kind of policies he can push through congress but what he can actually do in terms of through executive order and executive power in his administration. so it really means quite a lot. biden's putting a lot on the fact that he has good relationships with republicans,

but it is true that congress has changed since the last time he was vice president. >> emily, what's closing message democrats want to hear ahead of tuesday? >> they want to know that they are being considered and counted, not just at a national level. they are getting barraged with information. i mean, i'm of the mind-set there's no such thing as voter fatigue if you're reminding them they're going to vote. but they may have hit that point in georgia. they want to know their local issues are being counted and being considered. that's what they want to hear. >> the countdown is on to january 5th. thank you to you both and happy new year. >> happy new year. coming up -- the biden team says president trump's team is blocking his transition. and it's holding up their pandemic strategy. how the trump administration is now responding.

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the dispute between the incoming and outgoing administrations is escalating this morning. president trump's budget director is now pushing back against accusations that his office is obstructing the biden transition. let's go to nbc's monica alba

covering the white house. and mike memoli covering the biden transition from rehoboth beach, delaware. monica, earlier this week, president-elect biden singled out political leaders at the white house budget office for, quote, roadblocking his transition. so how are they responding now? >> yeah, in a forceful letter from the administrator for the office of management and budget, he is pushing back on those claims from the incoming biden team. the president-elect had given a speech talking specifically about omb and the department of defense putting up in his words, roadblocks to a smooth transition, but now we're hearing from the current administration that they have participated in what they say is more than 45 meetings so far with the biden team that will be taking over in a couple of weeks. and they have really been able to brief them and talk to them on specific issues. that is what the white house is claiming. but what they're pushing back a little bit more pointedly on now is saying what we're not going

to do is use current omb staff to write the biden transition team's legislative policy proposals to dismantle the current administration's work. so you have the biden team claiming they want to start working on their budget, for example, or other important legislative priorities. they claim they don't have that kind of support from the current officials here, which are pushing back on that to say that's not our job. the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but what's notable about this, of course, is that this administration does end in about three weeks from now or a little bit less than that. so they do have to wrap up some of these important items before the new team can come in. but this has been a bit of a contentious transition from the start. and that's simply because president trump has refused to accept the fact that he lost this election. we know that as he continues to try to overturn the results even though, of course, we don't expect any outcome to change and joe biden will be the one sworn in as the next president on

january 20th. kathy? >> three weeks to go and here we are. mike, you are following the biden transition team. so what are you hearing on the ground? >> well, kathy, the biden transition team, the way they've been operating throughout is really to do everything they can to try to put the campaign behind them. the president-elect himself has tried to set that tone to try to de-escalate whenever possible. this is a very clear exception. we saw it earlier in the week with the discussion about the lack of cooperation they've been getting from the pentagon, talking about the risk that poses to national security. now this is obviously a little more of a bureaucratic situation in terms of they need help writing their budget. and we are seeing a response now to the omb director's letter from transition spokesperson andrew bates. he said it's indefensible to hamstring the united states government's ability to prepare a budget and deliver help to those who need it. bates goes on to point out the very beginning of the omb

director's letter in which he rebuts the idea there's not full cooperation is contradicted by the way he ends the letter in which he says the current omb staff will not help the biden team begin to write their budget. now a new president just like a sitting president has a responsibility to deliver a budget proposal to congress in february. so this is what the biden team's contention is. the very process outlined by law to facilitate a peaceful and smooth transfer of power requires this kind of cooperation. it requires the career officials to be helping to cooperate with the biden team. and it's interesting, kathy, as you look at that transition law, the very officials who are, by law, part of what are the different agency review councils and the white house transition council are at omb. so it's hard to see what the recourse for the biden team is other than to try to raise these issues publicly and hope it puts pressure on the trump team to cooperate more. >> mike memoli, monica alba, thank you so much and happy new

year to you both. and coming up -- we have new laws taking effect in the new year including one that changes the way we travel. what you need to know next. first, here's molly hunter with how people around the world celebrated the end to 2020. >> reporter: a giant crowd, no masks. life basically back to normal. as they ring in the new year in the small island nation where covid cases have been virtually eliminated. >> i want this year to be a more, more, more, more happier than last year. >> reporter: in australia, fireworks soared above a mostly empty sydney harbor. while in the chinese city wuhan, where covid-19 originated, thousands packed the city center to celebrate. in europe, festivities and traditions were curtailed by lockdowns and curfews. statues and monuments in london barricaded off. berlin banning fireworks. rome and st. peters square empty.

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home instead. it's just a cold. if you have high blood pressure, a cold is not just a cold. most cold medicines may raise blood pressure. choose coricidin hbp. the brand with a heart. for powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure. after more than four years of drama and three prime ministers, britain has finally finished leaving the european union as of today. boris johnson, who campaigned for the split, celebrated overnight in a new year's message. take a listen. >> we have our freedom in our hands. and it is up to us to make the most of it. >> nbc's matt bradley is in paris following this headline. matt, this is a seismic, historic overnight shift. what's the reaction overseas? >> yeah, i mean, seismic, historic, all these things are true, but as like everything we've seen in the last year, brexit, which was a very big

deal, still is, was totally eclipsed by the coronavirus. even this momentous occasion last night, 11:00 pm when britain funeral lfinally left t trade zone. it went unnoticed. only a couple of trucks that were trying to cross from dover across the english channel. they were held up not by the brexit restrictions but by the coronavirus restrictions so it's going to be hard to tell going forward exactly what the effect is on the economy, on trade, on freedom of movement because all of those have already been restrained for other reasons. kathy, actually the uk left the european union back 11 months ago at the end of january in 2020. this is their formal departure from the common trade area. and that's why this was an actual concrete shift in britain's relationship with the european union. that's what everybody was looking for. so, again, this means a lot of changes for some people, but not

really your average person. a lot of people who -- british people who would want to live in the european union, european union citizens who want to live in britain, they can't do so indefinitely anymore like they would have if you were a member state of the european union. instead, they're going to have to apply for visas. their stays are going to be limited to about 90 days out of 100 days. it's just going to be britain's relationship is going to be with europe just like with any other country. but remember that boris johnson, the prime minister who was so celebratory last night about this new change, he actually signed an 11th hour deal with the european union that came out on christmas eve. that protected the uk from having to crash out of the european union with no deal. that was something a lot of critics were worried about. kathy, this whole thing has gone on long. 4 1/2 years. even those who were opposed to brexit, even those who wanted the european union to keep britain inside of it, they just want this all to be over. they were just happy that

there's finally been a resolution to this lengthy drama, as you called it, across the english channel. so now everybody can move on. kathy? >> matt, obviously, something that isn't over is the coronavirus. and you touched upon it. uk papers reporting london hospitals are in disaster medicine mode and can't provide high standard care. can you give us an update on the crisis in the uk as they split from the eu. >> it's overshadowing that brexit departure. the real restrictions that were put in place across the english channel weren't just because of the coronavirus. they were because of this very troubling new variant. and that's why there was this new report out from imperial university basically saying that -- confirming suspicions that a lot of doctors had that this new variant will actually be transmitted a lot faster. it's more contagious in that sense. so that's why it's taken up such a huge part of the viral cases in britain because it spreads so

much faster. that's why we're hearing from british hospitals, especially in london where the virus is at its most fierce, that they're about to be overwhelmed. there's a lot of worries the british hospital system, which has more or less kept up, up to this point, is about to be overwhelmed. that's why they're calling in for emergency measures. they're really worried about there britain this is going to become an overwhelming wave of the coronavirus thanks to this new variant which seems to be accelerating so much faster. kathy? >> matt bradley covering the latest on brexit and the coronavirus crisis in the uk. thank you so much. happy new year. back in the u.s. with the new year comes a host of new laws across the country with some taking effect as early as today. catie beck is in atlanta with a look at a few of them. what should we know? >> well, hey, kathy. i think the big law everyone needs to know across this nation has to do with airline travel. coming up in october, it will be required, if you want to board a

commercial flight, that you have a real i.d. compliant driver's license, a passport or military i.d. they will have a star in the corner so that authorities can tell you have been through that extra layer of screening. this was an idea tossed around after 9/11 but has been put on the back burner over the past several years and will go into effect this october. for anyone that has plans of doing holiday travel next year, which we imagine many people will, they'll want to have that i.d. in hand and be ready for it. not something you want to put off for too long. another thing to just sort of be mindful of a lot more states are enacting distracted driving laws. and today in virginia and arizona, it does become legal for the police to pull you over and ticket you if you have a phone in hand. now you still can make phone calls while in the car. you simply can't hold the phone in your hand. that is something that's going to be actively enforced.

and the fines are pretty steep. a couple hundred dollars if you are caught. in 2021, a lot of states taking aim at environmental measures. in delaware, they are banning single use plastic carry-out bags to try and reduce the amount of litter and trash in landfills. and also in hawaii, an unusual new law that's going into effect that bans the distribution and sale of certain sunscreens. hawaii says these sunscreens have chemicals in them that are toxic to marine life and coral reef and they want to protect those ecosystems as much as possible. a lot of new things out there to be aware of. >> all right. catie beck, joining us live from atlanta with all the new laws and the start of a new year. thank you. and happy new year to you. >> thanks, kathy. food banks have been overwhelmed trying to help people who are sometimes turning to them for the first time during this pandemic. up next, we'll talk to a restaurant owner who is helping keep her community fed.

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developing this morning, microsoft says a far-reaching russian hack of dozens of u.s. government agencies and private companies went further into its

systems than the company previously thought. microsoft says the hackers managed to view some of the source code for their software, but weren't able to make any changes to it. the company also says it found no evidence that the hackers got access to customer data and no indication that its systems were used to attack others. this is the same hack that president trump downplayed last month deflecting blame away from russia and suggesting chinese involvement. contradicting top officials in his own administration. meanwhile, the pandemic has left millions of americans without a job and without a way to feed their families. the group feeding america estimates as many as 50 million americans may have trouble putting three meals a day on their kitchen tables. in maryland's anne arundel county, a nonprofit is finding a way to feed the hungry and keep restaurant workers on the job. i want to bring in monica alvarado, owner of bread and butter kitchen and the owner of

feed anne arundel. this is such a great program. your group has managed to raise money to feed hungry residents and keep restaurant workers employed to prepare and distribute all the food. so what encouraged you to do this? >> honestly, at the beginning of march, as restrictions started to tighten, one of my customers, ryan, came in and he spoke to me a little bit about essentially how can restaurants help resolve the food insecurity issue? and so from that, we really came up with this idea of feed anne arundel which is really an opportunity, as you mentioned, for us to raise money. we use that money to pay restaurants directly so they can make meals. we then partner with the community and distribute those out to food distributions throughout the county. >> when you started, did you have any idea just how many are unable to provide food for their families? it's such a staggering number. >> it's incredible, actually.

i had no idea. i think as we started to get out into the community, it's been a real boots on the ground effort partnering with folks like a partnership for children, youth and family and acds and the cal ripken senior foundation. it's been an opportunity to really connect with organizations that have their boots on the ground that have connections throughout the community. and as we started to visit these food distributions and really just seeing how many people were in need, i mean, it really tore at our hearts, and gave us the drive to continue and to push forward as much as possible. >> monica, you've talked about one family that arrived at one of your sites after you had run out of food for the day. talk to us about their story. >> yeah, actually had our very first food distribution at a location, tyler heights elementary school, near and dear to my heart. and we had our very first food distribution there and brought meals to supplement the food given out by the anne arundel food bank.

and as we -- it was our first event. we weren't sure how many to expect. and we ran out of food. we had over 80 cars we had to turn away. as we were packing up and getting ready to leave for the day, we had a family pull up, and it was a day, we had a family pull up, a gentleman and wife and two young children, and they asked us in spanish, do you have more food, and we said no. he started to tear up. so i brought him and his family back to my restaurant, and my staff pooled together bags of groceries, and we made meals to go. the three-year-old little girl as we were preparing for this sta said in spanish, and one of my employees heard her say mommy, we can eat tonight. that was in the beginning of this pandemic. and for us to kind of experience that and to see a little girl who is hungry the night before and was so excited to be able to have a meal, it just really, again, reinforced the need for

us as restaurant community, and a community at large to really get involved and work together to solve the food insecurity issue in our county. >> it's heart breaking to hear the story of the little girl. it's hard not to get emotional when you hear that. your website says every 1,000 raised pays for 100 meals and puts 10 people back to work. how do you quantify your success? have you gotten a lot of people able to contribute? >> from a fundraising perspective, we've been blessed with a community donating and receiving grants from the local county. the fundraising has been a no-brainer for most people. it's a win/win/win. people understand the impact. when we're paying a restaurant to make feels to feed, that means they're open. that means they brought their employees back in and they've worked out food deliveries,

paper deliveries. they watched the entire economy to get involved. it's much more than just putting a meal on somebody's table. it's an opportunity for keep restaurants open and keep people working and keep the supply chain moving. our farmers, all benefit. and we've had over -- we have over 75 restaurants engaged. we have put in 2020 which was yesterday, we put over $1 million right back into the economy. and that is powerful. so this is truly something that we are very proud of. it's something we've been able to expand to other counties in maryland and hopefully we'll see similar programs like this pop up in other locations. >> monica, thank you for what you are doing. you received an award as well. congratulations for all your work and continued success. and it's great to talk to a fellow marylander.

i grew up in silver springs. happy new year. >> it's so nice. thank you for having with us. we appreciate it. >> thanks, monica. more than 10 million americans are starting the new year without a job. and 9 million have fallen into poverty throughout the pandemic. for many the outlook is bleak. one organization is trying to help those who are most affected. people without college degrees. nba's jake ward has more from oakland, california. >> this man grew up in oakland and knew he needed a four-year degree. >> in this world we live in and me being an african american, you have to have some type of paperwork to be able to move on, move up in life. >> he's right. a georgetown study found nearly 70% of new jobs require at least a four-year degree. but when he had to quit college to support his family and his father got cancer.

>> i wasn't able to move up in the company because of the lack of my degree. >> then he heard about the year-up program. it offers a shot at a career to people without a diploma. >> we put it into people's heads that you are failing if you do not go to four-year college, and then we priced that four-year degree out of reach for most americans. that's a definition of cruelty. >> it's a tech-based program. you take college courses, and you also get taught how to be a professional. >> culminating a paid six-month tryout at more than 250 companies including jpmorganchase and microsoft soft. he has a full-time mentor he now meets with virtually, and learns software, public speaking, project management. >> 90% of our graduates within four months of graduation are either in school full-time or on average earning 42$,000 a year.

that young person when they came to us was on average earning between 9,000 or $12,000. >> taylor was working in a call center and the partner when they realized they weren't going to make it. >> it was a low point. we didn't know what we were going to do when we had our son. >> it would be hell to have our son in those situations struggling check to check. >> it was emotional for me. i think i cried a little bit, and we really put our all into it. it paid off. >> with the current climate of the world, it seems like your education pretty much determines what your potential is. >> and here's the thing. those degree requirements do not affect everyone equally. according to census data, when you slap a degree requirement on a job, you're wiping out more than 80% of hispanic job seekers and 70% of american job seekers.

>> she's going to be our family pioneer, and he's opening up to new paths for the younger ones coming along, because we have more. >> i have a lot of cousins. they're smart. they're able to look up to me and see what i'm doing. >> that's cool to imagine them saying yeah, my cousin does this or my uncle does this. >> exactly. instead of just working at a job where it's not going to lead to anything. >> jake ward, nbc news, oakland, california. jake, thank you. and that's it for me. i'm kathy park. i hope you have a wonderful start to 2021. my colleague is up next after this quick break. have a great day. have a great day ucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. boost glucose control products contain high quality protein and key nutrients to support immune health. try boost.

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greating with yo you on this first day of 2021. wishing you all a happy new year. i don't think anything can compare to 2020. and we enter a new year with the same global pandemic. here are the facts at this hour. another case of that more contagious strain in the united kingdom has been found in our country. this time in florida. that brings the total to three states where the new variant has been found. it comes at a somber moenlt for our country. we just surpassed 20 million confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began. we've lost more than 346,000