Food Drive Emphasizes Healthy Eating

Elected officials from the Baltimore metro area gathered at the Franciscan Center in Charles Village on Friday for an event to kick off Maryland's Harvest for the Hungry food drive.

Starting Saturday and running through March 10, Maryland residents will be able to participate in the drive by placing donated food by their mail boxes, drop off donations at a office or purchasing $10 discounted bags of food from Safeway. 

“A can of soup and a box of cereal can make all the difference in the world for someone who really needs it,” Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said during a news conference.

However, this year's food drive, which is a partnership between Harvest for the Hungry and the United Way of Central Maryland, is putting an emphasis on gathering healthy foods.

Residents are being asked to donate healthy items such as low or no-sodium canned vegetables, whole grain or bran cereals and low-fat powdered milk.

“Think about what you want to feed your family and buy it for other who need our help,” said Molly Shattuck, the United Way of Central Maryland’s Healthy Food Ambassador. 

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake also participated in the event and said the city is increasing its efforts by joining the Governor’s Partnership to End Childhood Hunger. The goal is enroll more families in federal nutritional programs to lower the prevalence of hunger in Baltimore. 

“All of these efforts in the city are culminating in the increase in access to healthy food across our city,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said addressing access to healthy food has been a major part in the county’s health care initiatives, such as Healthy Howard.

“This has been a priority in working with our food bank—in fact since 2008, just to continue the dialogue about the need out there—since 2008 the demand at our Howard County food bank has tripled," Ulman said.