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Hayley Libowitz
Community, Collaboration, and Change in Baltimore Food Justice:
Exploring Baltimore’s Food-Related Programs
Abstract:
This paper examinesthe strategic programinitiatives that have been put in place to try
and addressthe problemof food and health inequality in Baltimore, Maryland. In particular, I
focus on the development of these initiatives, their goals,howthey are designed.My analysis
follows the themesof collaboration, community, empathy,and change through awareness-
raising.
Some People Are Born With Better Bootstraps
If you were to take a drive through the last decade or so of Baltimore City, you
might notice that it has undergone major changes. White flight, block busting, and the
ebb of public and private services (i.e. health centers/clinics, grocery stores, etc.), as well
as the systematic disadvantaging of low income, Black, and Hispanic
individuals/communities, have left local communities desperately lacking health-wise.
These communities are suffering across the board from economic strife, high rates of
crime and mortality, negative health behaviors, and a high rate of food-related diseases
unmatched in wealthier white neighborhoods.
The studies I looked at focused primarily on food insecurity itself, its causes and
effects, and perhaps one specific program addressing it—such as the Stop program
written about by Levkoe (1997). But not nearly enough research is being done on
effective and sustainable ways to solve the problem or on the programs that have been
implemented. My research examines the strategic program initiatives that have been put

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in place to try and address the problem of food and health inequality in Baltimore,
Maryland. In particular, I focus on the development of these initiatives, their goals, and
how they are designed. Through ongoing discussions with informants on how they
interact and relate with one another, as well as how they are collaborating with each other
and the community at large, I address the food climate and food justice work being done
by these programs. My research also places these programs within the broader context of
the history of certain Baltimore City communities and the general resources that are
available to residents in these communities to address food insecurity and food
inequality.
My informants consist of directors and members of the Maryland Hunger
Solutions the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, the Maryland Food Directory
and the Baltimore Gift Economy.
As I will discuss in this paper, my work highlights the themes of community
collaboration and change through education and awareness raising—as well as specific
projects—that contribute to efforts in Baltimore to bring about an end to food inequality
and disparities. I chose these themes because the data I collected had them
overwhelmingly in common.
Some Food For Thought
The purpose of my research is to recognize a few of the many programs and
institutions in Baltimore working to fight food insecurity. While food deserts, food
insecurity, and food inequality/disparities are subjects that have been covered extensively
by social scientists, such as Paul Farmer and Lauren Block, my research examines the

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strategic program initiatives that have been put in place to try and address the problem of
food and health inequality in Baltimore, Maryland.
I do this through what is sometimes called and NGO-graphy, “The term “NGO-
graphy” (Sampson and Hemment 2001) calls for a critical ethnographic approach to
understanding non-governmental organizations and nonprofits. It also suggests a
topographic image of NGO networks that both interact with and create human
landscapes” (American Anthropological Association, 2015). My NGOgraphy paints a
holistic picture of Baltimore’s food climate, a climate full of inequity and disparities in
health and food.
The literature on food insecurity and inequalities makes clear that one's income
level, race and ethnicity, household structure, and neighborhood, all have massive and
lifelong effects on an individual’s health and well-being (Block 2011: 5-13). Researchers,
such as Wutich and Amber, examine the effect of race and class on health disparities
through participant observation, analysis of current data, comparative studies of different
neighborhoods, and the enlistment of anthropological theorists in explaining the clear
disparities, “Human experiences of food and water insecurity are sufficiently similar to
facilitate a broader theory of resource insecurity, including how households and
individuals cope” (2014). Researchers such as Levkoe note that all of the literature seems
to focus on a discourse of community food security (CFS), a perspective that Levkoe
defines as:
“a broader perspective including sustainability and community building that
emphasizes building local capacities for food production, marketing, equity,
social justice and ecological state ability— and has its objectives including food

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systems that are decentralized, environmentally sound in a long time as well as
aims to be supportive of the needs of the whole community and to ensure
equitable food access through democratic decision-making” (1997: 587-601).
With this in mind, the literature calls for solutions such as a strong safety net for
those in need and for those who cannot provide for themselves until their economic
conditions improve.
Disparities in access to, and information about, resources for some Baltimore
citizens, especially people of color, means that large segments of our population face
more difficult, less healthy, and often shorter lives. When children don’t receive the
nutrition they need, as they grow, all other aspects of their lives suffer; they are unable to
maintain enough energy to focus at school and their grades suffer. Their overall health
suffers and they are more likely to experience growth problems and suffer from a host of
diseases (food and non-food related).
In 2013, the reported food security status of U.S. houses was that 14.3 percent of
households were low to very low in food security (USDA, 2015). The 2013 report on
Maryland specifically revealed that 16.2 percent of Maryland households reported an
inability to afford enough food (Maryland Hunger Solutions, 2015). A major roadblock
for people suffering from food insecurity is not just the lack of resources but also the lack
of knowledge about healthy food consumption. Lauren Block explains that, “knowledge
about food and nutrition seems to improve the quality of food consumption choices:
People make more healthy food choices when they possess greater nutrition knowledge”
(Block, 2011; 23). Inner city children are frequently deprived of basic food and health

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information; lack of funding for textbooks that might offer information for teachers about
health resources have left the health education programs of Baltimore public schools
ineffective, if existent at all.
It is only through holistically changing the system in which we are operating that
we can begin to create a more sustainable food system. This is where research begins to
fall short. There is not nearly enough research conducted on effective and sustainable
ways to solve the problem of food insecurity, especially on programs and institutions that
are trying to solve the problem. Much of the research is simply on the problem itself,
tracking the U.S’s descent into this current food crisis. It would seem that one would
follow the other; however, research on food deserts and food insecurity are is what
dominates. Addressing and working to solve food inequality would lead to working to
find effective and sustainable ways to solve a complex problem that calls for a holistic
and well thought out and supported solution. I am therefore attempting to bridge that gap.
My work builds on the work of previous research that has looked at themes that cause
separation and inequality, such as racism; classism; and lack of education and awareness,
so that we can begin to recognize and highlight themes and solutions coming out of food
initiatives and programs in Baltimore that are working to bring people together and raise
the community up.
Researchers like Lauren Block also advocate for tackling the issue of food justice
and food-related issues of inequality through multiple channels – not just through
individual charity, education, or policy initiatives, but by a holistic approach tackles the
food issues by connecting the greater issues of racial inequality and economic inequality
(Block, Lauren 2011: 5-13). Lauren Block and her co-authors discuss the need for a

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paradigm shift away from food equaling health to focusing on wellbeing, a move that
involves going from functional and mechanical, paternalistic and normative, restrained
and restricted and body mass index to a holistic, integrative, consumer oriented, and
positive approach that is attitudinal and behaviorally focused (Block, Lauren 2011: 5-13).
This approach would encourage an attitude to food consumption that is less about shame
and more about nutrition. This tactic requires a broad-based collaboration among doctors,
parents and teachers.
New methods, like the health privilege activity explored by Amy Irby-Shasanmi,
have been designed to demonstrate how biological factors, as well as individual
behaviors and social factors, shape health status and access to healthcare. This is done
through active learning techniques and in utilizing the sociological imagination in
relation to health (Irby-Shasanmi, 2012). Studies like these highlight the need for
programs/institutions that are fighting food inequality to take a holistic approach that
allows for multiple paths to both understanding food inequality and the process of
combatting it. Physical activity, as a teaching tool, has been found to be successful in
this research study, and can perhaps be repurposed for educating high school students and
older about their place within society and how that place affects their access to food and
health resources. Activities that engage young learners can also be used effectively to
encourage brainstorming on solutions to these issues and to closing those disparities. A
similar methodology could be utilized for an active education program designed for
younger kids in which they can see firsthand the importance of their family’s practices
vis-à-vis food—through some sort of cause and effect activity that illustrates the effects

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of eating certain foods, and how they can be empowered to improve their own food
habits.
Similarly, there are a myriad of platforms across North America, such as the Stop
Community Food Centre in Canada, which have programs that can be used with youth to
get them pumped about agriculture and healthy living. Stop also works with community
gardens, collaboration, and educating communities about what the can do to fight food
insecurity on a home and on a policy level. The most exciting part of my research was
seeing for myself just how many programs, such as Food and Faith Project or the
Baltimore Gift Economy, have been created in Maryland that work to create both
community gardens, school education programs, policy change, and community
education in a collaborative manner that will be sustainable— and more effective than
those things could be separately. As Levkoe says,
Through organizations collective groups of citizens are able to work together to
raise awareness, put pressure on governments and build viable alternatives to the
current system. Food democracy requires that people develop the knowledge
and skills necessary to actively participate in society and to have an impact on
different political levels. Food justice movements utilizing the grassroots’
initiatives provide this opportunity (1997: 587-601).
This literature on Levkoes research of the STOP program details both a strong,
holistic foundation of understanding for food security issues and snapshots of a few
programs around the country that are working—like those in Baltimore— to combat food
disparities.

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My research contributes to this literature by focusing on the strategic program
initiatives that have been put in place to address the problem of food and health
inequality in Baltimore specifically. I spoke with representatives/leaders from a number
of organizations and groups in Baltimore to examine their efforts and the shared themes
amongst their efforts. This goes beyond existing research because I am looking
specifically at Baltimore and because I research the development of these initiatives, their
goals, their shared themes, and how they are designed. I return to the literature, in my
concluding analysis, on food insecurity and on NGO-graphies at their foundation to gain
further understanding of where these shared themes might be coming from and how these
programs could possibly evolve in the future.
Methodology
I focused on the development of food initiatives, their goals, and the extent to
which the community has influenced them as they work to meet those goals. My
research touched upon the demographic and the narration of Baltimore city, the history
behind those places, and, primarily, programs are available to residents, as well as what’s
being done to address food issues. This research is vital because of the widespread food
disparities and inequality in Baltimore, as reported by sources such as the USDA and
Maryland Hunger Solutions, which need to be and continues to need to be addressed.
I conducted five, semi-structured interviews, acquired through a snowball/chain
effect format, with community leaders; institutions; and directors of food programs in
Baltimore—through my connections with places like the Johns Hopkins University
(JHU) Urban Health Institute. I reached out to my informants through email and provided
them with an outline of my research problem and interview questions. I explained my

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research in more detail upon our actual interviews, all of which were conducted over
Skype. Open coding was used to organize and analyze my data. Some of the questions I
asked in interviews were “Do you feel that Baltimore suffers from food deserts and
inequality”, “What does your program do to combat food inequality”, and “What are
some of the strengths of your program?” My informants were Amanda Buczynski,
director of Maryland Food Mapping Project (connected to Center for a Livable Future);
Darriel Harris, a Project Officer of Food and Faith Project (also through CLF); Alice
Huang, Healthy Food Coordinator with the Baltimore Food Policy (Baltimore
Department of Planning and Food PAC); and Rachel Tucker, an Anti-hunger program
associate with Maryland Hunger Solutions.
Getting to Know Food Programs in Baltimore
In the following sections I introduce the various informant’s programs and their
projects and highlight overarching themes in my data through excerpts from their
interviews.
Origins
Excerpt Set 1
Informant
1 Amanda “The Maryland food system map actually, we the center supports phd
students through a fellowship and we supported one student who uh
looked at the food environment, healthy food availability within food
stores and compared parts of the city to parts of the county and um
found some really interesting things by mapping it and out of that we
decided we wanted to take on a state wide map and its just kinda
continues to grow from there, but uh, as food councils and food policy
is being more um, is becoming more important and people around
Maryland are stepping up to do that work, the map resource is really
showing its worth by supporting those organizations.
2 Darriel “I mean the Baltimore Food and faith really started through um as, You
know Angela Smith, she had finished her massive thesis at Brown
looking at how faith groups um are working to do environmental justice
work. So once she finished that, somehow, I’m not exactly sure how

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she met Anne and others, she found CLF and um CLF was already
looking for ways to kind of um yeah work in communities and find
populations that many be ready groups, ready to do things. So they
formed this partnership and um, and out of which the Baltimore food
and faith project was born.”
3 Alice The city decided that food access was a major issue that they wanted to
focus on, and so they had this um, So a group of people from different
Universities and organizations came together and formed the Food
Policy Task Force. And they met and after they finished they had put
together 10 or I guess recommendations in terms of what Baltimore
needs, what Baltimore needs to work on, and from that they decided
that the Food Policy director was actually very ideal to implement a lot
of these recommendations.. It’s not an official entity that makes any
kind of decisions, but it’s basically a group where we try to connect
people together, we try to create opportunities for networking and try to
create opportunities for collaboration and really help people to
understand what’s happening in food, because a lot of times people are
stuck in their own little niche and it’s really challenging to know what’s
happening in the city as a whole and so part of food pact is keeping
them updated on a nay policy changes that are happening in the city
and also so they know what other people are doing in food whether it
be in retail or agriculture or school or anything like that.
4 Rachel “SO Maryland Hunger Solutions is an initiative through the food
research and access center that we were founded in 2007 - 2008, so still
a relatively young organization. And, I mean in terms of our goals we
really try to use sort of proven and evidence-based solutions and
programs, and we know that programs like SNAP which has been
around for decades now, um that was introduced in the LBJ
administration, as a part of Lyndon Johnsons war on poverty, um so a
lot of these programs have been around for you know 50 plus years. ”
5 Ulysses “And so with Baltimore Gift Economy, it started at the school where
we were just taking vegetables and stuff inside the school and sharing
them with the teachers. We felt like the teachers weren’t able to get out
to farmers markets and things like that because they are always
working, and so we started doing that. And we would tell people just
give us what you feel grateful for, and we made more monetarily doing
it that way than if we had put a price on it. Because it wasn’t really the
price that was the interesting thing, it was what we were doing and the
service that we were providing, and as people felt grateful they gave
based on their gratefulness. And we spent 20 dollars on a couple of
tomatoes and that’s like wow, and they’re not really buying what you
are selling, they’re buying what you are giving without asking for
anything in return

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With all of these programs, it’s clear that progress really started in the past decade
or so, with around sixteen years being the farthest back any of the programs had for a
start date. Already, they’ve come an incredibly long way. The work on NGOgraphies
states, “little is known about the social and institutional networks out of which NGOs
emerged and through which nongovernmental action occurs, or about the ways in which
NGO interventions relate to more deeply embedded social and institutional processes.”
(Bebbington, 2004). The importance of my interviews lies perhaps in this focus on their
program’s origins and the food climates from which they emerged,
“That is, these networks of people (and ideas, institutions and things) are already
pursuing strategic goals and create NGOs in order to further these strategies and
do things that cannot be done through existing institutions and networks.
Activities benefiting from the existence of a formal, legal organization might
include applying for financial resources, employing staff, gaining legal
recognition and presence in deliberative fora, etc. If that is so, then NGOs need
always to be understood in terms of these networks and their longer-standing
histories and geographies.” (Bebbington 2004, 765)
These programs came out of a climate (Baltimore) that suffered greatly from systemic
racism and oppression as well as from massive food deserts. A few of the programs came
out of or worked directly through institutions such as Johns Hopkins or the Food Policy
Directory, “On the other hand there has been a growing body of work that is sceptical of
NGOs. This work has raised questions about their performance, accountability and
transparency, and the politics underlying their operations (e.g., Edwards and Hulme,

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1995; Hulme and Edwards, 1997)” (Bebbington, 2004 867). This means that they were
informed by a medicalized, white, powerful institution with a colorful, problematic, and
often-distrustful history with Baltimore and its citizens. It is important to keep that fact in
mind as we explore the growth of these programs.
Focus
Excerpt Set 2
Informant
1 Amanda “I manage the Maryland food system Map Project that’s trying to
track our food system geographically across the state and we’ve
done a lot of extra access to healthy food research in Baltimore, we
created a food desert map
2 Darriel “I work primarily on the Baltimore Food and Faith Project and
basically what we do is try to is take all, or at least a lot of the
research that CLF does and um communicate that through faith
groups and have them um implement projects and aid in
implementing projects that are going to um you know change the
food system, change the food environment for the good. Yeah, and
work with people from all different religions and spirituality.”
3 Alice We are part of the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative and we are uh
nested within the Office of Sustainability in the Department of
Planning for Baltimore City. And so what we do it’s more policy
based but how we work is w do a lot with non-profits and with
organizations that are underground and we try to link people
together, we try to connect people together and people are sharing
resources. We try to do a lot with charity and so we strategize with
the efforts that are being done to try to really increase food access in
the city. And so part of that is through our food desert retail strategy
where we try to work with retailers and work on the retail end to try
to increase food access. Then we also work on the urban agriculture
side where we try to um help people who are trying to start a farm or
gardens, helping them figure out what is keeping them from doing
what they want to do.
4 Rachel “And have you know, gotten better over time, but have also
encountered various setbacks along the way mostly related to
different policy measures that have either been tacked on or you
know ways that people have worked to try to obstruct these benefits
or to lessen their effectiveness. But the reason that we work through
the Federal nutrition programs is that we know specially that
programs like SNAP and also the School Breakfast Program are our
two proven programs that fight food insecurity and improve people’s

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health. So we are always work through those because it’s again, a
way that you can leverage federal dollars to the state level, it lessens
the burden on state, and again, it’s money and our benefits that
people pay into over time so if you’re eligible there’s no reason you
shouldn’t be using them.”
5 Ulysses “Well, you know, food is a language that everyone speaks, and to
have good food and good health is to live out your life in a way that
speaks to abundance. So what we are trying to do, is meet those, it’s
almost spiritual, it’s kind of a spiritual action when you give
something to someone. Um, and then there are all these universal
laws that go into effect. So what we are trying to do is to spur the
community to think about healing itself through the medium of
food.”
Even just looking at the focus of these programs, the themes of collaboration,
community, bringing people together, and awareness raising shine brightly. Phrases like
“heal people through food”, “enabling people to have food”, and “connect people
together” stand out just as clearly as reflections on the need for research and for policy
change. Again it’s interesting to compare the programs that are linked to institutions as
opposed to those created by community leaders. JHI programs like Darriel and Amanda’s
and policy programs like Alice’s are very much orientated towards people with power
and resources coming in and making changes and/or helping, whereas community lead
programs like Rachel’s to a certain extent and absolutely Darriel’s are based completely
in the community’s perceived needs and in sustainable reciprocity and communication.
Projects
Excerpt Set 4
Informant
1 Amanda “We’re about to release a new report, next week in our news letter, um,
taking the agriculture census data from Maryland and converting acres
and number of animals into pounds of food produced and then
comparing that to pounds of food consumed in Maryland to kind of
better understand how that, we know that not all the food that is
produced in Maryland stays here in Maryland. A lot of it is sold for
export and other things but, just trying to get people to think more

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about how we can support the local food production better. So those
kinds of research projects we do and then we put it out there.”
2 Darriel “Yeah I mean the design is built around the understanding that there
really is one person and there’s not a whole lot one person can do, and
so then we have to ask what is it that you can do as one person who has
a little bit of money and um no real control. And, and, and, really what
we can do is inspire, we can educate, we can celebrate people who are
doing things that we like to see, and we can in some instances
empower. So all the programs that we do are set up to do that. Either
to educate people about the problem, about the solutions, to celebrate
people who are taking active steps in the direction that we think is
positive, and um to empower groups, make connections between um
sometimes like small churches and city people and other organizations
that can really help grow some of the good things that we see around
us. And we, you know, write blogs and write newsletters, and we’re on
Facebook, we’re on the radio.”
3 Alice “So um we’ve been planting gardens, we um well we help people plant
gardens, we connect people with groups that give out free fruit trees
and so forth. But then we also work with congregations and with
association s that are working with corner stores, we’re working with
congregations that are selling food commercially, and farming on a
larger scale, and yeah so we just want people to eat better. And we
work with people, and try to figure out how they could want to eat
healthy. Cause appetite is also another part of the equation. Sometime,
people don’t want to eat what’s healthy. So what’s the appetite for the
things that are beneficial, so we try to work with those groups and we
try to create programming that will reach to those problems.”
4 Rachel “My focus area here is on statewide snap outreach. Here in Maryland
snap program, formerly food stamps, is known as the food supplement
program or FSP. So it’s three different names for the same program, so
in addition to coordinating, our outreach not only in Baltimore City but
across the state of Maryland, we also work on snap program policy,
looking at ways to improve how the program is administered here in
Maryland, making sure that people who are eligible for the program –
special populations, uh children, seniors, immigrants, people with
limited English proficiency – all have access to the benefits to which
they’re entitled.”
5 Ulysses “Yeah, we’re connected with the organizations that are doing food
work. They have a new farmers market coming in called the Village
Market. We are active with them, we support it, fresh food coming into
the area. We’re also connected with the Catonsville Co-op – we just
did a presentation to them about alternative economic systems, gift
economy, peer-to-peer, giving and receiving. And so, there are quite a
few organizations coming into focus who are trying to see how to work
with us because we do things in a non-traditional way and they want it
to work their way. And so its been interesting working with other

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organizations, I mean even University of Maryland, we’ve been
working with them on some things, um the Bell (?) and Extension
office, Master gardeners, food groups and community engagement
groups, Westside Caterers is a, we got the funding from them and
Monday Market was burst out of that offering. You know, the lines of
food into health, into transportation, into money, different areas,
because we want to provide solutions to the people that come to our
table. And so we need to have our antenna reaching out for all sorts of
resources to share.”
“If the question of ‘what is an NGO?’ were reframed as ‘what are NGOs a case
of?’ a different type of reflection might become possible, one which may go further in
explaining what happens within NGO projects, where it happens, and the types of impact
these projects may have. One such reframing is to consider NGOs as the organized face
of more deeply seated, networked forms of social action” (Bebbington, 2004; 18). All of
the programs seem to be taking a very holistic and intential approach to food justice, in
which they seem intent to empower communities to help partner with them in creating
sustainable change and food-related infrastructure, such as with the above quotes from
Rachel and Ulysses.
Awareness/Growth and Change
Excerpt Set 5
Informant
1 Amanda “I don’t know if you said this before but um, I think with being a
research organization, we are trying to, we’re not just research, we’re a
research and communication organization. So like Darriel was saying,
so much of what we do is getting the word out so that more people
become engaged on working on these issues because they’re going to
require major cultural shifts that we can’t alone do so, we spend a lot of
effort ton putting information out there, and the research piece of any,
finding gaps in something that hasn’t been studied, we try to focus on
that and raise up new issues.”
2 Darriel “So I had one Saturday. Sometimes it will be like 50, 60 people and
sometimes it will be like 3” “It’s hard sometimes. I think we’ve always
struggled with that. You want to do something where you get the most
return for the time we’re investing but it’s hard with events to tell. I
don’t speak nearly that much. I probably average one presentation a

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month but so some months I don’t have any and some months I have
three or four so. ”
3 Alice A: Yeah, um, I think for that, our office we have people who sort of
work in different niches and so I guess, for mine personally, in terms of
intentionality: How do we better coordinate efforts with working with
communities? And better coordinate what we are doing to really make
ourselves accessible? You know there are so many organizations in the
world that work on food, and wondering how many people in the city,
you know residents, how many residents are fully aware about what
organizations are here and what organizations can provide? And so I
think for us it’s trying to figure out how to coordinate that better and
what it would look like instead of community members running
organization, you know how do other organizations come and better
communicate what they can do to those organizations. How do we
better build trust with these communities?
4 Rachel “So I mean I think, It’s a great question and for SNAP it’s just a
program that I work on there are mountains of research about the
program and specifically it’s impact on reducing food insecurity –
among children and adults – um there’s a lot of great research on
SNAP’s ability to reduce the impact of food insecurity. I’m throwing
that term around a lot and I think that’s a term that you’re familiar with
but for anyone who’s not um, you know food insecurity basically looks
at the inability to access regular, nutritious foods on a daily basis. So
that might mean that families are skipping meals, reducing their portion
size, just not eating on a regular basis. And that has a really big impact
on your health, on educational outcomes, on mental health, on a variety
of indicators that inform and influence the way we live our lives and
how healthily we are able to do that. And what a lot of this research
has shown is that when children are on SNAP, their health is better, in
terms of educational outcomes when children are fed and whether
that’s breakfast, you know the school breakfast program, or through
getting SNAP benefits at the household level, you know things like
their attention improves and they tend to perform better on exams and
they have less behavioral problems and things that all contribute to
their ability to succeed academically. So we’ve seen a lot of various
research that just shows over time that kids who have access to these
programs, not only does their health improve, but their economic and
educational opportunities do as well.” “Your main focus is educating
people about these programs and how they work and if they’re eligible
and making sure through our advocacy that these programs are working
as they should and if they’re not that we need to figure out ways to
make them work better.c Constant assessment and evaluation and
trying to make improvement to these programs.”
5 Ulysses “Yeah, uh, with the food justice movement, a lot of people approach it
in different ways. There’s one group that would approach it as just
getting food out there. But what do they do after that? My focus is the

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follow up. What do we do after we’ve given them the food? And is
that the extent of the relationship? Should that be the extent of the
relationship? And so that’s when we come in and say no we should be
able to connect resources not just food because justice comes when you
are educated and are able to access resources that will change the
trajectory of your life and your family. So, we feel that food is just a
vehicle to get to the justice; other people feel that food is the answer.
So that’s kind of the difference. Food is the beginning of a relationship
in talking to someone.”
This is a crucial part of these programs, awareness raising, getting the word out,
and reaching new people including citizens and policy makers alike is vital in making the
changes they seek and reaching the demographic they desire to help. As Bebbington
states,
“Taken together, these observations echo recent calls for greater specificity in
analysing NGOs (Igoe, 2003) – what should be studied is ‘actually existing civil
society’ (Mohan, 2002), not just the civil society that is presumed to exist
(Mercer, 2002). This does not merely imply doing more ethnography of
development organizations (as has also been called for in recent years). It also
implies more analytical and empirical care in exploring and explaining sources of
variation across space, and resisting the normative temptation to be either
gratuitously critical or excessively optimistic about NGOs.” (2004;728)
This is relevant because the programs need to constantly be checking in with their
communities to make sure that they are reaching them and that they aren’t inadvertent
excluding and isolating people because of their language or preconceived notions. For
example, they have to make sure the language they use isn’t classist and full of jargon to
the point that every day people don’t understand the message or the policy.It also means
that our analysis of these programs can’t happen out of context, we must think not just of

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if the programs could work, but if they could work specifically in Baltimore
communities.
Use of technology and social media
Excerpt Set 6
Informant
1 Amanda “We look for opportunities to [partner], but I think part of it is just
being in constant communication uh so we our project definitely relies
on social media. We have a newsletter that goes out quarterly we’re
actually getting ready to send that out next week, uh, and so that allows
us to remind folks that we’re here and then we might come up with
some idea and we reach out to people.” “Um well, um so the newsletter
you can sign up online on the main website which is
mdfoodsystemmap.org. Um there are links to that from the main CLF
website as well um, or in you know from our twitter accounts,
Facebook accounts those kinds of things. ”
2 Darriel “So there’s two ways, I mean we have a newsletter we have a web
presence, and we’re on Facebook and twitter so people sometimes find
us through Internet searches and so forth. And then they come and
seek us out. But um at the same time, we go to conferences, we go to
neighborhood association meetings, we go places where we expect to
interact with people and then find people who may be interested and
then you know partner with them and have a longer conversation with
them about these topics.”
3 Alice I know that there’s a lot of you know work groups and you know
different organizations that work together, there’s a lot of overlap. I
actually think that the Health Department might be a good place to start
in terms of work in reaching out to communities um, they also have
something where they are trying to create an online food forum and that
has to do with educating community members and empowering them to
kind of understand the food environments that they live in and
understand issues like structural racism and social justice and how that
can impact how they live and kind of giving them some tools to help
them change their food environment. So that might actually be an
interesting resource for you, but I’ll definitely compile a list of contacts
for the health department because I think that they might be a good one
to start with.
4 Rachel “So with regard to SNAP, we work very closely with the Department
of Human Resources, we and a number of other organizations across
the state, have entered into a contract with DHR so it’s what’s called
formal outreach partners. So that means that we receive a certain
amount of funds that are matched throughout the state to do outreach
for FSP. So that includes doing things like trainings a couple times a

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month, training other individuals, other organizations, other volunteers
to do SNAP outreach and how to submit applications for folks using
the state online application portal for SNAP and other benefit
programs.”
5 Ulysses “I invite you to come on Mondays to see the people and observe the
interactions. Its not like any market you’ve been to, it’s very different.”
More and more we are seeing programs and initiatives lean in to the technological
advances of our time, utilizing social media to connect and communicate as well as using
new technology to create more effective tools of delivering their messages—such as
mapping things, digital grocery stores, and distributing surveys and information. This
important to understand because these programs are not in a vacuum, the city around
them is incredibly “plugged in”.
Community and Collaboration (two data sets)
Excerpt Set 7
Informant
1 Amanda “And for my project, um, it so data driven and we can only collect so
much ourselves so we rely a lot on existing resources so we reach out
to ah, you know the State Department of Health, the Department of
Planning, the Department of Environment, for those data sets. But we
really see our work as all of those people have become our partners and
helping us, uh, and we too go, uh I’ve done a lot of presentations at
universities, planning association conferences, um and so always
trying to build new relationships with potential new partners that have
data sources and then we work in partnership with the food councils
around the state and with the Baltimore food policy initiatives and uh,
the food desert report in particular is code branded as uh a city project
and a CLF project. So, it’s an ongoing partnership. ” “For us it’s it
really is pretty, it really is, what’s the word, organic. We have
something that we need help on we just find a partner. We did a survey
of hospitals and universities last year looking at how much local food
they’re purchasing, uh and so we partnered with Maryland Hospitals
for a Healthy Environment. So when opportunities come up like that to
do certain research its done better in partnership so we’re going to
reach the key people we need to reach if we work with an organization
that they already know?”
2 Darriel “Right, and just in general partnerships have played a huge part in what
we do. I mean Amanda has a few employees working on her project. I
have a few interns and just myself so like there’s no way. And there’s
never been more than just one person and an intern or two. Um and,
there’s no way that we can do all that we do by just ourselves, right,
that’s impossible. So, partnerships are very crucial, and leveraging
everyone’s skillset and assets.” “I do events but I wouldn’t say like I
help you now and you help me later and there is some structure but
basically its borne out of um shared ideas and values. So we want

20. Libowitz
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people to eat healthier, to have the food environment more conducive
to living, and to have the people working in the food systems to be paid
a livable wage.
It’s other groups out there that want the same thing, right. So um we
partner together to try to achieve a shared goal, if you will. Um, so
that’s kind of how we look at it. We kind of see ourselves as true
partners. I mean a lot of the people we work with, we give them money
to help them plant a garden or do activity interfaith groups. There’s
some instances where we’re almost begging them to do it.”
3 Alice “Yeah I can definitely email you a list of organizations and contacts to
those groups that might be able to give you a little bit more into what
they’re doing. Um, but yeah there’s also a lot of groups that are also
starting locally within their communities, so I can try to share stuff with
you, and I think Darriel might also know of a couple. There’s like uh
an organization called the (UNCLEAR) of Love and they’ve been
trying to work with their community and really try to do a program
where they help people who have been incarcerated get food job
training, in addition to um, I guess building greenhouses and doing
urban agriculture in their communities. Um, yeah but I think Darriel
might be able to give you more information on them. But they might be
a good one to talk to as well. ”
4 Rachel “We work with people during tax season to help them apply. We are
doing a lot of work with community health care partners; we started
working with Chase Brexton in Mt. Vernon last October. So we come
in a couple times a month and we do application assistance there on
site, so we work with their patients who have been screened and
determined as income eligible. The other thing that we’ve done is we
developed a locked prescription pad called the FSP Nutrition
Prescription, and we’ve worked with caseworkers, at senior centers, at
local community clinics – we’re actually working on trying to get this
to be used through the Kaiser Permanente system as well – so that
nurses and other health care providers can do food insecurity
screenings to see if someone might be in need of food assistance or
other security programs.”
5 Ulysses “When they call me in for a meeting, I get them to (UNCLEAR) level
of understanding, ad then to give it to me and then we’ll have a
conversation about it so that way, their expectations are upfront, b/c our
expectations are already upfront. And so when they draw out their
level of understanding it, just cuts through to the level of clarity and we
know what each other is after, you know. So that way it makes life
easier for me.”
Excerpt Set 10
Informant
1 Amanda “Yeah, and for example, there’s a group in Baltimore that is a faith-
based group and they have maybe what a dozen and a half food houses

21. Libowitz
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with vegetables and so forth and they sell their vegetables to Hopkins
to all these different farm to table restaurants. So I was trying to figure
out, I want to tell people to support this local farm right, but they didn’t
sell directly to the public at the time so how can I have people support
this local farm? Um so the only way to do it is to have people support
the restaurants that the farm sells to right. So I asked Amanda and
Amanda’s group if they could create a map that shows all the urban
farms in Baltimore and where their food goes to, like to which
restaurants and so forth. So they created a map that does that. And
then now we can go up to people and say hey if you want to support
this local group you know go to these restaurants. ”
2 Darriel “Yeah I’m invited often um it can be to do a workshop at a church or
preach at a church speaking at a conference. Yeah I’m a minister and
so people sometimes say can you preach, and I say yeah, I’ll preach.
Or can you um, you know read a statement? Anyway, so yeah so
sometimes the reasons why we get invited vary at all times, it’s usually
not just to tell people about Baltimore food and faith or Baltimore CLF
um sometimes you may man a table at an event to do that but usually
when you go and speak its to tell people about something, something
that’s important.”
3 Alice They’re definitely a community-based organization, they are working
very closely with the health department to coordinate this effort with
healthy corner stores. I think people are starting to learn, or starting to
work on really engaging with community members and holding
community meetings. But I would say that to know specifically what
people are doing it would be best to contact those organizations directly
and maybe asking them kind of what they’re doing underground to be
in the community.
4 Rachel “Sure, sure, Yeah so here in Maryland, something that we’ve been
working on for some time is making sure that the state is taking
advantage of deductions and state options that are available for the
program. So with USGA, it’s usually every year or every few years
releases what’s called the SNAP state options report, and it looks at
every state in the nation and has this really nicely laid out report about
what different options exist that a state can take advantage of to either
enhance or improve the administration of their benefits. So that can be
everything form categorical eligibility, or “catel,” and what that is, is it
allows eligibility for SNAP to be determined based on other federal
programs or other state programs that someone might be enrolled in, so
if a child is in let’s say Head Start or they are in foster care then they
will be receiving benefits or are homeless or something like that, there
are sort of matching databases that a state can use to say “oh this child
or this family is already enrolled in these benefits, so we know that they
are already at the eligible income level.” Something like that can make
eligibility determinations a lot easier which of course makes it easier

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for us to get people enrolled.”
5 Ulysses “This year we are seeing more people engaged in reciprocity actions,
and thenwe’ve expended it to we have this thing called Saturday school
where they can come and teach a course it they want to teach the
community about something. So it’s not just about money, it’s not
about money at all; it’s about engagement and doing the volunteer
work. But it’s not normal volunteer work, it’s tell someone about us,
share what you have with others, and it just grows from there. So we
don’t have a tally to see oh this person’s doing this we just tell people
to share information and we really prompting them to do what they tell
us to do in kindergarten, to share. Share with each other.”
I expect as we move forward that we will see more and more collaboration—not
just between programs but also between programs and the community they’re serving.
who lean on each other and feed off each other to spread their messages, gain resources,
and shape the community. Community os perhaps the most important part of
NGOgraphies; the entire environment, the history and source of food insecurity,
everything is tied to the community—as are any possible solutions and initiatives. The
thing that I believe makes the programs of my research so successful is that they all lean
on each other/similar programs and they are all deeply engaged with and aware
of/concerned with the community. Every policy written, map made, talk given, and
initiative created is done with, by, and for the community.
As Ulysses said during the interview, “what we are trying to do is to spur the
community to think about healing itself through the medium of food”. Overall there is
definitely this conception of community as this huge group of people who work together
to address food inequality and health needs in Baltimore, as well as a group in crisis with
severe lack of awareness—however the problem lies in homogenizing this group as all
the same or as single issued. As Bebbington states,

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“Furthermore, the effects of this presence will vary according to ongoing
processes of immanent development which also vary across the locations in which
NGOs work. Put differently, these place and landscape changing effects vary
across space and contribute to unevenness in patterns of local development. Yet
the analysis of how NGOs and their interventions are distributed across space, or
of how Anthony Bebbington 727 this distribution influences broader patterns of
development is far less common. As Mercer comments, ‘the spatialization of
NGO activity and impact remains largely ignored despite growing evidence that
NGOs are serving to “pluralize,” particular places and spaces at the expense of
others’ (2002: 13).”
In fact, what we have is a diverse range of peoples and identities with myriad different
needs and cultural and socio-economic baggage that needs to be acknowledged and even
celebrated.
Through informants consisting of directors and members of organizations ranging
from Maryland Hunger Solutions to JHI’s Center for a Livable Future to Maryland Food
Directory to The Baltimore Gift Economy, my work highlights themes like community
collaboration and education, partnerships, and awareness raising—as well as specific
projects—that contribute to efforts in Baltimore to bring about an end to food inequality
and disparities, as well as the need to constantly assess and analyze these programs for
their cohesiveness within communities and ever-evolving conceptions of communities
and their needs as well as the best ways to meet them. These programs are only a
snapshot of what’s happening in Baltimore, highlighting the themes of collaboration,
community, bringing people together, and awareness raising.

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