Ending Food Insecurity: Bringing Freedom Food to Promise Heights
Savoring the power of strengthening community
This past summer, Promise Heights Freedom Food Program provided our constituency with healthy and nutritious food at a time when the need is greater than ever. The process also helped support local agricultural producers, encouraged greater consumption of more fresh (and often organic) fruits and vegetables, gave our community an opportunity to experiment and enjoy different types of unfamiliar produce, and also supported the consumption of natural foods during the same season when they’ve been grown and harvested.
“It is very important to me to bring education of nutritious food and value of community efforts to support the issues surrounding the food desert that we live within. It is a goal of mine to unify the community and support growth of a community initiative.”
Cynthia Banks, Promise Heights Parent Leader at Furman L. Templeton Preparatory Academy
Any gardener or farmer knows that to yield a good harvest one needs to prepare and fortify the soil, gather fertile seeds, enjoy a run of good weather with not too much or too little rain or heat—plus have the good fortune to avoid environmental pests—all while regularly investing time to nurture and water the site on a daily basis. And in the end, if all goes well, when the growing season concludes, the reward will be nature’s nutritious and bountiful gifts.
We’ve noted a similar pattern while lining up favorable conditions to manage the food-related programs and support that Promise Heights has coordinated since the pandemic struck last spring. These included our rescue of school-based cafeteria perishables shortly after Baltimore City closed all public schools; the regular meal deliveries and responsive food pantries that our volunteer team provided to help sustain our community when the quarantine first isolated us in our homes; the popular June-to-July grant-funded Pearlstone Kitchens MealTrain Program for 100 families of four; and most recently, the highly successful community-developed and managed Freedom Food Program that we funded through a generous grant from the Fund for Educational Excellence.
Happily, each of these incentives have functioned much like an exquisitely planned series of domino tiles, arranged in sequence with the intention to trigger a seamless cascade-like wave, when each element also unleashes other unanticipated ripples of change.
In this case, now that our Freedom Food Program that began as a community-driven incentive earlier this summer and is nearing its formal conclusion on September 30, we’ve noted that its momentum is continuing to build, as community leaders and residents of Upton/Druid Heights are becoming more empowered with the knowledge and experience they’ve gained in recent months.
Most significant: this past summer, Promise Heights Freedom Food Program provided our constituency with healthy and nutritious food at a time when the need is greater than ever. The process also helped support local Black-owned agricultural producers and food vendors, encouraged greater consumption of more fresh (and often organic) fruits and vegetables, gave our community an opportunity to experiment and enjoy different types of unfamiliar produce, and also supported the consumption of natural foods during the same season when they’ve been grown and harvested.
Oh—we forgot another essential! These programs helped our community save money, both by receiving helpful meal donations during a time of need, and also revealed ways to avoid paying large grocery chains for extra transportation and delivery costs.
Our most recent success story to report is the July to September grant-funded Freedom Food. Don’t miss its backstory shared by two women of Promise Heights who were involved from the early stages of this community-inspired program that formally ended today—September 30. Yet as you’ll learn, this creative group discovered ways for the incentive to continue providing bounties to 100 families of four for several months to come.
THE UPTON/DRUID HEIGHTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPS A NEW FOOD DISTRIBUTION MODEL
What better way to start off a weekly planning session to prepare for the upcoming week’s community food distribution than to ask members to share delicious thoughts, prompted by ideas like, “Visualize your favorite childhood summer food treat” and “What food have you recently tried that left you pleasantly surprised?” Certainly, brainstorming before a business meeting and directing group focus on sharing their most exquisite gastronomic pleasures seems the perfect way to get things started.
And this is precisely how the newly formed Freedom Food Planning Group started each weekly meeting throughout this past summer, each time including a poignant question as the first point in the early afternoon meeting agenda, when community members gathered to discuss the who-what-how to prepare for upcoming Friday’s Freedom Food distributions.
In the beginning, Black-owned local caterers were chosen as providers of the food boxes, including L and L Catering and Alkaline Bodies, as well as community partners, Dru Mondawmin Healthy Families and the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. With autumn coming, August 19 was the day the group discussed the most important qualities of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) they were considering, since this was the ideal time to choose a distributor to invest in for their September food share. (Anyone who has chosen a CSA knows there are many crucial qualities to consider, and since the group’s funds needed to be spent before the end of September, this was a creative and practical way to ensure community members could stretch out their needs for nutritious groceries for months to come, while enjoying the best of 2020’s harvest season.)
Promise Heights’ role was to support this community group in any way they might need; as the impetus grew from conversations among various families who felt that food distributions should support neighbors and a local Black-owned initiative whose goal is to help build future opportunities in the community. As the project’s momentum great, the planning committee chose to include summer fun bags packed with special treats for recipients, including books and puzzles for both seniors and kids—delighting grandparents who were happy to share their reading materials with grandchildren and neighbors.
The planning group’s core idea to opt for a CSA was brilliant, given that this crop-sharing system closely connects produce producers with consumers by enabling members to subscribe to harvests supporting a specific farm or group of farms. As most CSA members know, unlike products sold by grocery chains, the result is fresher and more delicious food, sometimes picked mere hours before distribution, ensuring the maximum nutrition and flavor.
We’re so thankful that and to all the partners who helped make the Freedom Food Program possible— since without generous support from the Baltimore Ravens, Bank of America, Bloomberg, CareFirst, Comcast, MyBGE, ConstellationEG, Exelon, LeggMason, M&T Bank, T Rowe Price, Under Armour, and Wells Fargo. Administered by the Fund for Educational Excellence and Business’ Volunteers Maryland.
You probably know the traditional song with call and response lyrics that match this story: each line repeats three times. "I'm on my way to the freedom land, I'm on my way to the freedom land, I’m on my way to the freedom land" before the refrain, "I'm on my way, praise God I'm on my way!" New people are welcomed: "I asked my brother to come with me...I asked my sister to come with me." Yet the singer remains focused, "If they say no, I'll go alone, I’m on my way, and I won't turn back....I'm on my way, praise God, I’m on my way!"
Freedom Food
The Power of Community: Promise Heights residents spent the summer of 2020 planning, supporting, growing, and nurturing opportunities for freshly-sourced food in their neighborhoods
Cynthia Banks is so proud of the first container garden she grew this past summer!
FOOTNOTE:
As we prepared this story, several people commented that early this past summer, Promise Heights Community School Director Meaghan Tine began seeking ways to help provide families with enough food for a week or more, and source that sustenance within the community to support local entities. We're especially thankful for Meaghan’s consistent and proactive efforts to support all children and families of Upton/Druid Heights. Brava!
Click here to read personal reflections from two Freedom Food Planners