Food Map - Real Food Farm Mobile Farmers Market, Dept. of Social Services

Michael J. Wilson On Hunger

Rev. Carol Pearly - McElderry Park

Food Map - Maryland Hunger Solutions

Amazing Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is located right in the center of McElderry Park, a neighborhood in east Baltimore just east of Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the 8 years that Rev. Carol Pearlie has worked in the neighborhood, she has seen a decline in housing and the general wellbeing of her neighbors. In partnership with the church, the Maryland Food Bank provides fresh produce that the church gets into the hands of those in need through a monthly produce drop.

"When I walk down Monument Street, I see people --  I see people trying to survive," said Natasha Miller, a 29-year-old mother who gets fresh food from the produce drop to cook and feed to her children.

Food Map - Amazing Grace Lutheran Church

Physical access to fresh food, gas that is $4 per gallon, and lack of social service infrastructure are a few of the challenges Western Maryland faces in terms of rural poverty and food insecurity. "People aren't going to drive twenty or thirty minutes for $10.00 worth of food," said Matt Thompson, Managing Director of the Maryland Food Bank Western Branch. 

Food Map - Maryland Food Bank Western Branch

"In Garrett County, unfortunately, we have the wealth and the poor. Down around [Deep Creek] Lake, tremendous wealth. When you get into the surrounding areas, tremendous poverty," observes Rodney Durst, Manager of Senior Center Operations for the Garrett County Senior Centers.

On a weekday morning, a line forms down a small street in Oakland, Maryland. "We didn't start until 9:30 this morning, but we easily had 100 people lined up at 8:30," says Michael J. Wilson, Director of Maryland Hunger Solutions, the group that helped organize this Garrett County Food Resource Day. Here, people had the opportunity to connect with other organizations and resources before picking up a big bag full of fresh produce donated by farmers across the state of Maryland and delivered by the Maryland Food Bank - Western Branch. 

Also featured are the voices of Sheila Ford of Garret County Community Action and Matt Thompson, Managing Director of the Maryland Food Bank - Western Branch.

Food Map - Garret County Food Resource Day

Shelley White, Community Outreach Coordinator at Real Food Farm, told us, "The components to access to heathy food are varied. One can be the price, one can be the actual availability of the produce. Another big one is transportation -- and that's the one that hits the elderly folks the hardest."

Part of the mission of Real Food Farm, an urban farm located in East Baltimore's Clifton Park, is connecting Baltimore with fresh, healthy food. They do this by selling produce at community farmers markets and taking it directly to people with limited access using their new Mobile Farmers Market.

Food Map - Real Food Farm; Clifton Park, Baltimore, MD

"It's very helpful because dealing with poverty and the way that price of stuff going up, it's a big help" is what Eddie Cephus told us about why he comes to the Church Street Pantry in Cambridge, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. 

We take a tour through the pantry attached to the Christ Episcopal Church where a small line has already formed an hour before opening. Malcolm McKnight, who runs the Church Street Pantry, shares the close relationship the pantry has with its patrons that keeps people in need returning each month.

Food Mapping Project