People Flourish When Food Comes First
We are touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of hungry Marylanders, positively impacting communities from Cumberland to Cambridge. Join The Fight
The food you help provide to Marylanders in need has an impact that reverberates throughout our state. Well-fed children learn more, struggling working families get back on their feet, seniors thrive, and individuals are able to focus on more productive pursuits than finding food.
With your help, we can give more than food. We can give hope.
Who We Help
We could measure the Maryland Food Bank’s impact in numbers, such pounds of food or meals distributed annually, but the most accurate measure of our impact is on the lives we touch.
Maryland Food Bank helps:
- Hungry Children – proper nutrition is crucial for child development and academic success, improves confidence, and correlates with reduced risk of health issues, school dropouts, and incarceration.
- Working Families – food assistance helps families in Maryland, a state with one of the highest costs of living in the country, avoid having to choose between food and other key household expenses like health care or housing.
- Seniors – malnourished seniors suffer an increased risk of a variety of health issues, including gum disease, asthma, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and heart attack.
- Maryland’s Communities – food assistance resources distributed through programs such as SNAP program have been shown to nearly double their economic impact on the local community, and positively impact the quality of its health, safety, and education.
Hear Their Stories
The true face of hunger might not be what you expect. Find out what happens when we help our neighbors in need, in their own voices.
Research and Reports
Find our latest original reporting and data-driven tools aimed at helping stakeholders and the public better understand and address the complexity of food insecurity in Maryland.
It’s just really important to let them feel human, to let them know that they’re recognized…
Marge B.
Assistance Recipient & Volunteer
When I go to my refrigerator, and it’s not just empty, it makes me feel good. Living my life now, I wouldn’t pass it up for nothing.
Lamont B.
Recipient
I never realized we have so much hunger here.
Pat
Volunteer
Latest News
Holistic Help for Hunger’s Root Causes
A key part of MFB 3.0, our refreshed strategic plan, emphasizes expanding workforce development programs and partnerships that are crucial to not only Maryland’s continued recovery, but its long-term ability to thrive. Some of our Network Partners — including three that you’ll read about here — are already offering these wraparound services. Our Regional Program Directors are working every day to help more of our statewide partners form these kinds of beneficial relationships.
Feeding Mind, Body, and Spirit: Meet Nadine B. of East Baltimore
“It takes me back to when I was a child in the inner city where food was a lot scarcer. When your neighbor up the street couldn’t get out or had health issues, so you took what you had and shared with them. To me the food bank is that neighborhood, that village I grew up in. It lets me know that I’m not alone — lets me know that people still care for people.”
Pilot Program: Pathways to Economic Security
To better serve our neighbors in need as rates of food insecurity remain high, we’ve introduced innovative pilot programs to address the root causes of hunger and identify and assist more food-insecure families across Maryland.
Maryland Food Bank Research Report: Child Food Insufficiency
More than two in five Maryland families — 45% of our neighbors — said their children were often or sometimes not eating enough because food was not affordable, with families in the lowest income bracket experiencing the highest adversity.
