Neighbor Impact Grant

The Maryland Food Bank stands at a pivotal moment in our history. Hunger in Maryland is both an urgent daily reality and a reflection of deeper systemic forces. To meet this moment, our vision must be as ambitious as the challenge itself: we will build a future where food security is a shared guarantee, not a fragile hope. This funding initiative serves this goal.

Now in its third year, the program’s grantees are reshaping the systems that we know are standing in the way of a food secure Maryland and the broader conditions that determine whether people can live healthy, stable lives. Their work runs the gamut from transforming local food systems to be more resilient and equitable, to advancing policy change, building coalitions, and shifting public mindsets.

Examples of Impact

• The creation of a community organizing network dedicated to ensuring equitable food access for communities targeted by food apartheid in Baltimore.
• The extension of traditional community health models to include food distribution, in-home check-ins, and wraparound services.
• Support for an advocacy campaign tackling the chronic shortage of affordable childcare options for working families.
• The creation of a county-wide collective impact network of food service providers working together to co-design solutions and better align local resources. Convening organizations to establish common goals and solutions proving that while the work of collective impact is long, it is essential in combatting hunger.
• The creation of a food training program, rooted in deep community investment and care.

Current and Past Neighbor Impact Grantees Include:

Watch The Video

On the Menu | The Power of Neighbor Impact Grants

In the Maryland Food Bank’s first ‘On The Menu’ session, we brought together voices that are changing what it means to fight hunger in Maryland.

Meg Kimmel, CEO of Maryland Food Bank, sat down with Stephanie Halley of Westminster Rescue Mission and Tiffany M. Page-Cooper of the Langston Hughes Community Business & Resource Center for an honest, powerful conversation about what systems change actually looks like and what it takes.

They explored how Neighbor Impact Grants are seeding community-driven solutions to build a food security Maryland. Sharing real stories of neighbors whose lives have shifted, and reflected on what long-term, flexible, neighbor-centered work truly requires.