5 Ways to Help End Food Insecurity in Maryland

Updated January 3, 2019

For 40 years, we’ve been the safety net that food-insecure Marylanders have relied on. But despite a highly efficient food distribution program, we know it takes more than food to end hunger—it takes you.

This year, consider making a resolution to ensure that every child, individual, and family in our state has access to the most basic human need: nutritious food. With your help, we can continue feeding people, strengthening communities, and ending hunger for more Marylanders.

For many of us, this holiday season included an abundance of home-cooked meals, time spent with loved ones, shared laughs, and hopes for the new year just around the corner.

However, nearly 1.5 million Marylanders ended 2019 with a different reality — a reality marred by not knowing where their next meal would come from.

As we start the new year, let’s come together as a community and commit to ending hunger in Maryland. Not sure how to get started?

Here are Five Ways You Can Help

Educate Yourself About Food Insecurity

Movements gain momentum with knowledge. Without it, very little change can be made. So before you do anything, gain a better understanding of food insecurity in our state. Start by using this interactive map to find hunger statistics throughout Maryland and in your local community.

From there, learn more about government food assistance programs and MFB programs designed to uplift some of the most vulnerable in our state — children, seniors, and hardworking families who struggle each and every day.

After that, get to know food-insecure Marylanders on an intimate level by reading their stories.

And make sure you continue to stay informed throughout the year. Food insecurity in Maryland is a fragile landscape that can be affected by everything from legislative action to natural disasters.

Spend Time Volunteering

Volunteers keep our organization running. They donate more than 42,000 hours every year — hours that allow us to move a huge amount of food throughout our network of farms and warehouses and into the hands of those who need it most. Without the generosity of our volunteers, we would never be able to distribute an average of 110,000 meals daily.

Help us keep the momentum going and feed even more hungry Marylanders this year by scheduling a time to volunteer.

The signup process is painless and your impact is guaranteed to go far!

Start a Virtual Food Drive

Help lead the fight to end hunger in Maryland by starting a virtual food drive. Not only are they much easier to get up and running than a traditional food drive — taking mere minutes to set up — they also ensure that we receive our most-needed items.

What’s more, promoting a virtual food drive to your family and friends helps spread the word about hunger in Maryland and attracts even more advocates to our cause.

Expand Food Recovery Efforts

Have you ever bought something at the grocery store with every intention of eating it? But then, life gets in the way, it gets old, and eventually gets tossed out with little thought.

It’s happened to many of us. But unfortunately, this seemingly harmless act exacerbates food insecurity in Maryland.

While it can be a frustrating challenge in home kitchens, most restaurants and businesses don’t have a plan for managing leftover food either. They tend to just toss it in the trash because it’s a hassle to quickly find a charity that will accept the donation.

The Middle Mile Program is the Maryland Food Bank’s answer to this problem. Through MealConnect, an easy-to-use app/website, interested food donors get connected to volunteers who can deliver the food directly to an MFB partner.

Find out more about how your business can donate food or how to become a volunteer to pick up and deliver food.

Take Part in Workplace Giving

Monetary donations make many of our programs possible. These donations allow us to keep our warehouses stocked, fuel our trucks, and make it possible to get food out to Marylanders in need across 1,220 distribution points statewide.

Any gift, no matter how small, makes a difference and keeps our doors open. But what if your gift’s impact could be doubled? Thanks to workplace giving programs, it could.

It’s easy to find out if your employer participates in workplace giving. Simply visit this page and use the Matching Gifts database tool to find out if your employer will match your donation.

If your employer doesn’t come up, double-check with your company’s Human Resources Department.

When you participate in even one of these simple acts, you become part of something bigger, a movement that is feeding people, strengthening communities, and ending hunger for more Marylanders.