Follow-Up: Hunger in Maryland; How You Can Help

Some readers asked how they can help the people who are unsure where to get their next meal. 

A surprisingly high number of residents in Maryland’s wealthy suburbs are struggling with hunger, as Patch reported this weekend.

According to the story, a total of 651,370 people, or 11.6 percent of Maryland’s population, is “food insecure,” a term that refers to those who have limited access to nutritious foods.

Food bank workers across suburban Maryland pointed to the flood of middle class people recently seeking help--from information technology workers to those in the health care industry. One man showed up to the North Laurel-Savage Multiservice Center recently after he went without eating solid food for two weeks.

Deborah Flateman, the CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, shared the following ways that people can share their money or their time for this effort. 

Volunteer. You can help sort food at the Maryland Food Bank to be shipped to local food banks, or you can click here on the Maryland Food Bank website to find a food pantry in your community, where you can offer your help, which can include serving people who are coming to pick up food.

Donate Money. Each year, the Maryland Food Bank receives about $8 million in charitable donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and more, money that funds its operations.

Donate Food. Flateman advises that people go online and do a virtual food drive, meaning you can go to the Maryland Food Bank website and purchase food by the case to be donated. “The fact is, it’s more expensive for people to do physical food drives,” she said. “When it comes here, it needs to be picked up. Then you bring it back to the food bank, then it has to be examined and sorted, and in the end it costs us 34 cents a pound to handle food.” If you do want to donate food to your local food bank, Flateman cautions against buying fresh food, which has a short shelf life and puts an added pressure on a local agency. Canned proteins, vegetables, fruits and cereals are best, she said.