40th Anniversary: Honoring Our Past, Inspiring Our Future

Forty years ago, Ann Miller founded the Maryland Food Bank (MFB) after her work at the Baltimore Health Department led to an interest in helping individuals in need through food.

Working with a small group of volunteers in what was known as the Maryland Food Committee, and after visiting food banks in Detroit and Phoenix, Ann created MFB as an offshoot of that group — establishing the first food bank on the East Coast.

At the time, Ann imagined that “hunger was a temporary problem,” and that the increase in hunger would subside in a matter of years.

Hunger in Maryland Today

Although we’ve made significant strides since our founding — distributing 37 million nutrient-rich meals throughout the state every year — 665,000 Maryland suffer from food insecurity.

With such a large-scale problem, the reality of hunger is clear: It impacts every community, and walk of life, in our state.

The government shutdown earlier this year reaffirmed just how fine the line is between food security and hunger, especially for these families who live paycheck to paycheck. Any unforeseen expense — like a layoff or medical bills — can force Marylanders to make the difficult choice between paying for necessary expenses or putting a meal on the table.

Today, the Maryland Food Bank works all over Maryland to help working families who have difficulty making ends meet, seniors who are forced to choose between medicine and food, and children who would otherwise go to school hungry.

Celebrating Our 40th Anniversary by Looking Forward

While we’re proud of the work we’ve done over the last four decades, this year marks more than just celebrating our past accomplishments of service. We want to focus on moving forward and fighting hunger with new approaches that will lead to sustainable change.

To mark 40 years of leading the fight against hunger in the state, we’re launching a 40-week, statewide campaign that highlights why “It Takes More Than Food to End Hunger.”