Keeler Thomas ’25
Our final day brought more partnership meetings stirring our study of food insecurity’s grasp on Baltimore residents and responses to this problem. After lobbying in D.C. the previous day, our kickoff event was an early meeting with the Baltimore City Food Policy and Planning team. This team, being integral to the analysis of, education on, and combat of food insecurity in Baltimore at the local governmental level, was strikingly small. But do not let the size of the wave determine its power, for Taylor, Lindsay, Yewande, Najahla, and Amber were themselves capable and invested individuals collaborating on a sea of initiatives, including, but not limited to, an online SNAP program called B’More Fresh Produce Incentive, providing additional money for those eligible and using SNAP benefits through an online portal, and a targeted patient care program called Food Rx that supports the patient and their family through tailored and nutritional meals.
Following this, we traveled to the Beth Am Synagogue for a tour and conversation with Rabbi Burg focusing on the Jewish community’s presence and role in the local neighborhood. The building, not only a place of worship but also an education and organizing space for Jewish and non-Jewish groups alike, was built just over 100 years ago, yet balances a modern, spacious, comforting, and sacred atmosphere. During these years, the relations of their neighborhood have changed due to the shifting landscape, particularly due to the construction of a highway, Druid Park Lane Drive, preventing access to Druid Lake and its associated park. Rabbi Burg emphasized the importance of sharing space with all his neighbors, a lesson he, his Jewish community, and those not affiliated with the synagogue have all learned deeply.
Throughout this entire day, I was particularly interested in the fact and happy to see Shae, our partner with Strength to Love II Farm where we gardened on Tuesday, join us for both of our meetings and that the members of the Baltimore City Food Policy and Planning team knew Shae. On the way to the synagogue I learned more about her living situation in relation to the Strength to Love II Farm, other local farms and her proximity, and scheduled farmers markets she enjoyed attending. I felt uniquely connected with her after spending a day working in the dirt alongside her, and now conversing with other partners alongside her as well.
Beyond these partnerships, today was a cause for thoughtful reflection. These few days spent in Baltimore have presented us with very specific answers to the more general and concrete question “How do we fit in? How can we affect change? How can we reduce food insecurity?”
Among many possible responses that are all true and valuable, I am drawn to one particular thought as well. To me, an underlying, silent, yet patternific, answer is that it is the people and their relationships that affect change. A problem as pervasive, as deep, and as nuanced as food insecurity, with its intersections of historical and contemporary racial discrimination (on both interpersonal and systemic levels), generational poverty and income inequality, and other structural systems of oppression, requires a wider, deeper, interconnected constellation of people invested in its resolution. Every partner we met this week approaches the problem of food insecurity in Baltimore and the U.S. from a different angle. Every partner is a person full of wisdom and drive. And they do not do it alone. Every partner is a leader of people. And every partner knows, and maybe even collaborates with, other partners invested in the same issues. No effort, no initiative, takes place and affects change in a vacuum. I am reminded of the idea that “it takes a village”, and I think this is especially true when it comes to combating food insecurity. I find hope in this fact because there will always be individuals aware of and looking to change oppressive systems, “critiquing what is and creating what isn’t,” to quote Dr. Rev. Brown. At the same time, deep and sustainable social change is “not a sprint but a marathon,” to quote Andre, the lobbyist supporting Bread for the World. Moving forward, it is unequivocally evident that the work being done in Baltimore to support its residents is incredibly necessary. It is also clear that more public awareness and support of the people working to combat food insecurity’s effects will inevitably weaken its grip on the residents of Baltimore. I am forever grateful for our partners this week, for all of my Food, Fath, and Justice peers, and for Baltimore. These people welcomed me into their homes, and in turn, I grew inextricably close to them. This experience as a whole has changed my life trajectory, and I feel I have become part of a larger village of amazing people.