2. Some PeopleAre Born With Better Bootstraps,An
Introduction:
• My research examined the strategic program initiatives
that have been put in place to try and address the
problem of food and health inequality in Baltimore,
Maryland.
• In particular, I focused on the development of these
initiatives, their goals, how they are designed, and the
themes of collaboration, community, bringing people
together, and awareness-raising.
4. Some Food For Thought
• The purpose of my research is to recognize a few of the
myriad different programs and institutions in Baltimore
working to fight food insecurity
• I do this through what is sometimes called and NGO-
graphy, “The term “NGO-graphy” (Sampson and
Hemment 2001) calls for a critical ethnographic approach
to understanding non-governmental organizations and
nonprofits. It also suggests a topographic image
of NGO networks that both interact with and create human
landscapes” (American Anthropological Association,
2015).
• My NGOgraphy paints a holistic picture of Baltimore’s
food climate.
5. Getting to Know Food Programs in
Baltimore
• My research contributes to this literature by focusing on the
strategic program initiatives that have been put in place to
address the problem of food and health inequality in Baltimore
specifically.
• I spoke with representatives/leaders from a number of
organizations and groups in Baltimore to examine their efforts
and the shared themes amongst their efforts.
• This goes beyond existing research because I am looking
specifically at Baltimore and because I research into the
development of these initiatives, their goals, their shared
themes, and how they are designed.
• I will also reflect back on the literature of both food insecurity
and NGO-graphies at their foundation to gain further
understanding of where these shared themes might be coming
from and how these programs could possibly evolve in the
future.
6. The Methods
• I conducted five, semi-structured interviews, acquired
through a snowball/chain effect format, with community
leaders; institutions; NGOs; and food programs in
Baltimore—through my connections with places like the
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Urban Health Institute.
• My informants were Amanda Buczynski, director of
Maryland Food Mapping Project (connected to Center for
a Livable Future); Darriel Harris, a Project Officer of Food
and Faith Project (also through CLF); Alice Huang,
Healthy Food Coordinator with the Baltimore Food Policy
(Baltimore Department of Planning and Food PAC); and
Rachel Tucker, an Anti-hunger program associate with
Maryland Hunger Solutions.
7. Origins
• “The Maryland food system map actually, we the center supports phd students through a
fellowship and we supported one student who uh looked at the food environment, healthy
food availability within food stores and compared parts of the city to parts of the county and
um found some really interesting things by mapping it and out of that we decided we wanted
to take on a state wide map and its just kinda continues to grow from there, but uh, as food
councils and food policy is being more um, is becoming more important and people around
Maryland are stepping up to do that work, the map resource is really showing its worth by
supporting those organizations. ”
• And we spent 20 dollars on a couple of tomatoes and that’s like
wow, and they’re not really buying what you are selling, they’re
buying what you are giving without asking for anything in return.
And so the Baltimore Gift Economy was born but it was still in its
infancy until last year we had a grant and we were able to set up
for Monday markets and we were growing food at the school and
presenting it to the community as a gift.
8. Focus
• “we research food systems and how different production
systems, um food availability, uh different aspects of the food
system how that impacts our health, um and we do this through
a number of different projects. “
• Food and Faith communicates that through faith groups and
has them implement projects and aid in implementing projects
that are going to um you know change the food system,
change the food environment for the good.
• what we do it’s more policy based but how we work is w do a
lot with non-profits and with organizations that are underground
and we try to link people together, we try to connect people
together and people are sharing resources.
• “Well, you know, food is a language that everyone speaks, and
to have good food and good health is to live out your life in a
way that speaks to abundance. “
