BALTIMORE — For the last eight years, The Food Project has been expanding its services in Baltimore City, transforming lives through comprehensive support that goes far beyond providing meals.
Inside an abandoned school on Pulaski Street, The Food Project serves as a lifeline for hundreds of people seeking free meals. But the organization's mission extends much deeper than addressing immediate hunger.
"It's crucial to provide more than just food if you want a community to be able to get up on their feet and move to the next step," said Michelle Suazo.
Baltimore Food Project: From Meals to Dreams - Transforming Lives Daily
The need for The Food Project's comprehensive services continues to grow as Baltimore faces ongoing challenges with food insecurity.
"We have an at-risk population and people who are really food insecure so what we have the ability to do is to provide them with some resources as well as some training that is going to improve and better their lives," Suazo said.
The organization's impact extends beyond immediate relief, creating lasting change in people's lives. Tyree Johnson, who I met last year after he received his license, exemplifies this transformation. He now has goals of owning his own restaurant one day.
"It completely made me a different man and showed me life is just not what it is outside and you make life, life is what you make it," Johnson said.
Johnson envisions expanding this model of support to reach even more communities in need.
"I want to have a food project in every state, I want to have a food project in every country, I want this to be global like it just saves a lot of people's lives, it definitely saved mine so if we had this down here and we can get it in other communities imagine how many lives that we can save," Johnson said.
The Food Project supports people with food, shelter, clothing, health and wellness support, and career training and job placement opportunities.
“At the end of the day Maryland Physician Cares is providing an in house social worker, the healthy box program that helps us deliver to 200 additional families. That also creates additional jobs at the food project. Something we never realized prior to MPC is the high infant mortality in SW Baltimore. They fund the doula program at MPC to come in once per week to help alleviate this problem. That’s major impact" says, Michelle Suazo.
For Suazo, being able to keep expanding services has exceeded her expectations.
"I am proud to be at this point right now because when we started off, we couldn't get past food, clothing, shelter, and to be at the point now, and I'm not going to cry, to really see their dreams is so exciting so I am just very proud of them," Suazo said.
The organization operates pop-up markets three times a week, with the next ones scheduled for Thursday and Saturday morning. The Food Project is also preparing for The Big Gobble, a Thanksgiving and turkey giveaway event on Sunday. Also MPC is providing an additional 200 turkeys to the Food Project.
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