"Know the Team"

Feed people. Fight disease. Foster Hope. 

The entrance to Moveable Feast

                    

    Feeding

  Others

           Outstanding

Diets 

 Taylor and Erinn Say: 
Today the whole team went to Moveable Feast. The organization is maintained by the efforts of volunteers that prepare, package, and deliver meals. Today we worked in the kitchen cutting vegetables for the meals and packing the weekly meals. Others from the team bagged groceries that are to go out to different clients with different dietary needs.  It was inspiring to see and be apart of the process that serves those in the community who suffer from illnesses and cannot afford to eat nutritiously.Organizations such as Moveable Feast helps to alleviate poverty in urban areas that lack access to food with nutritional value. 

"Poverty is the mother of invention."

Team Mental brainstorming with Juanita while Team Physical Labor does  work

Today we went to the Cherry Hill Urban Garden, run by the most amazing 70 year old woman, Juanita Ewell. She started the Urban Garden three years ago after she retired, and has been working on it ever since. She has a grand vision for her garden: she wants to get the community involved, open a farmer's market every week, sell to more restaurants in the area, create a space for the community to come together and learn about healthy, sustainable nutrition, and probably even more that she didn't share with us. 

The garden fills a very important niche for the community, which is filled with fast food restaurants. It doesn't have a grocery store either, meaning that without Juanita, people would not ever be exposed to raw, unprocessed foods. She told us that it has been hard to get the neighborhood involved, and that most of her help has come from people from outside of it, like college students and Americorps volunteers. The people of Cherry Hill just don't know about nutrition; they don't know that your diet strongly correlates with your health, and they don't know how to cook and prepare a healthy meal. Since Juanita's garden is a completely foreign concept to them, they just aren't likely to get involved. She's been trying to get them interested through their kids, and knows that people will come around, but it will take a while.

It made me think that too many takeaways, too little proper food, too much grazing food and too few family meals are to blame for the health issue among the poor. With the decline of the family- wrought by the policies of successive governments - patterns of eating have changed. Meals in many households, especially those of the relatively poor, are no longer family or social occasions. It is also sometimes alleged that people buy prepared food because they are cheap. In fact, sometimes you will find stores that sell an astonishing range of vegetables at equal astonishing price. Like Juanita said, although we can not be sure that having more vegetables will keep people away from illness, at least we can start from living a more healthy life to try not to let health problems be our biggest problems that influence our financial status. And it seems to me like a dead loop that poor people eat poor things, and thus are exposed to higher risks to obesity, cardiac problems, etc, and years after year heavy illness easily drag people into bankruptcy without/even with insurance covered, and this is how poor people get poorer or even homeless. 

Juanita did so much with so little, and her enthusiasm was inspiring. She does everything for the operation. From the actual gardening to developing programs, fundraising, marketing, networking, Juanita does it all -- and she loves it. I was motivated by what she was talking about how important it is to do something you are really into, and I begin to think that it is never too late to start doing something you really want to. 

After we left the Urban Garden, we obviously got free Rita's for the first day of spring.

We also watched Baltimore, We Love You, a documentary about urban poverty. To be completely honest, I couldn't focus on the message because the film was literally monologue after monologue layered with the same b-roll shots and looped elevator music.  Apparently, other people enjoyed it. I don't know. I couldn't tell you. We wrapped up the evening with a reflection on the day's activities and did more.

-Clara and Amanda 

"When do you know the opera is over? When the usher comes and wakes you up!"

Okay so this is David. Today for AB we went to Healthcare for the Homeless and attended a meeting about homelessness. Here a couple of prominent figures in the homeless community came and talked to us about some of the issues that face them. Some had stories to tell and others told us about their groups and what they do. I wanted to focus on one story a man told us that really impacted me. He told us about how a man was murdered in the homeless shelter he was staying at. The staff was apparently there to witness the crime but did nothing about it. The shelters are supposedly a safe haven for these people, but they are not. Things get stolen, people get hurt, yet what other options do they have. Those who stay out in the streets have to face the elements or stay in makeshift homes under freeways. Even then, they get evicted from their "homes" and get told to go to shelters. Before this trip, I was under the impression that shelters were safe that it was odd that people weren't taking advantage of them. After this meeting and story, I now see that these people have to make a very difficult decision every day. Do I go into the shelters and risk getting hurt or having my stuff stolen, or do I stay out and face the cold? I'm not even taking into account the strict rules and regulations the shelters have. From what I've seen today, many people choose to take a chance with the elements.

Okay to lighten the mood a bit, today we encountered more ghosts in the arboretum. We walked around this path and found a mansion with the door open slightly. It was some of of museum thing that was open til 3:30 pm. It was 3:34 pm when we got there. Being the adventurous bunch we are, we decided to go in. We looked around the lobby of the place and looked around for somebody. All of the sudden, an alarm went off. Being one of the men of the group, I decided to bolt out of the front door, leaving most of them behind. Everyone else stayed behind until a second alarm fired off. Then everyone came scrambling out of the building. Some of us say that they heard voices in the upper floor and decided they were ghosts. Anything unusual happening, blame it on ghosts.

MELANIE

I'm not sure if we can do this, but my blog is going to be primarily pictures. These pictures were taken on a tour led by Tony, a former homeless man who is now homeless by choice (in order to advocate for homelessness).

Here's a quick Google Map snapshot of where we were (800 Falls Way, Baltimore):



View Larger Map

This is Camp 83, located in front of the prison on Falls Way. Many homeless people used to live here until the city government finally gave them temporary housing. The fence was erected to discourage people from living there after they were given temporary housing. 

I believe this man's name is Daryl, though I'm not 100% sure. He sells papers for Word on the Street, which is an advocacy paper for homelessness. Think about the friendliest person you've met and multiply that by 110% - that's what this guy was like. 

This is a couple that Tony, our tour guide, introduced us to along the way. They are married and homeless. They've been interviewed by NPR twice. When I asked to take their picture, the man said yes enthusiastically. 

Overall, it was cool to interact and to learn about a largely marginalized, and often hidden (in this case hidden by the Baltimore city government) community. I'm glad to be aware and a bit more educated about this issue.

Maria:
   The city of Baltimore is home to many things. From products like Old Bay, Domino Sugar, Utz Chips to sports teams like the Orioles, the Ravens. It is home to historical landmarks such as Fort McHenry, in which the battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem occurred. Ironically, what Baltimore is not "home" to is adequate housing for its own residents, resulting in a homeless population roughly estimating 4,800. To learn more about urban poverty, our ASB group sat in on an advocacy meeting held in Health Care for the Homeless. In the meeting, we learned that many of the policies meant to benefit the homeless either do little to help them or have been distorted in such a way that the homeless are abused and neglected. One man in the meeting, who does not have a home, described his experience in the Harry and Janet Weinberg Homeless Shelter on the night of the murder of one of the clients. The man recalled the sounds of a man being brutally stabbed to death and witnessed slow-to-move security guards, who not only failed to act and to prevent the murder, but also allowed the murderer to escape. Incompetent staff members are only part of the problem.
    Another important lesson we learned today revolves around the idea of societal based problems. In the advocacy meeting, one woman shared an experience that recently happened to her. After the culmination of a series of unfortunate events, she wound up losing her home and living on the streets. She is an older woman, probably in her early sixties, and in her life has acquired two bachelor degrees. She requires the use of a wheelchair and one day, when she left a building, she fell out of the wheelchair, hitting the right side of her face to the concrete. Despite the numerous amounts of people in the area, no one bothered to help her, let alone, pay any attention at all to her. She choked up at the end of her story, explaining that the most hurtful part of her experience was not her literal fall to the ground, but rather the failure on behalf of those around her to treat her with dignity, to treat her as if she were a human being. Additionally, to bring to life the themes we heard about in the meetings, Vanessa, a worker at HCH and Tony, an advocacy leader and homeless himself, took us on an "Injustice Walk." Not only did we get to see the places the homeless are forced to sleep, including garage parking lots and underneath overpasses, but we also saw the buildings surrounding Harry and Janet Weinberg shelter, which primarily were prisons, both for juveniles and adults. We saw that the sidewalk across the street from the shelter was bought by the government in order to prevent the homeless from loitering on the sidewalk. We saw the park that the government banned the homeless from enjoying. In summary, what we saw was a lot of injustice, enabled by society and by the government. Our goal of this trip is to learn about urban poverty and to alleviate the problems of the impoverished Baltimore community. One of the ways we can achieve this is by spreading awareness and refusing to let people forget, ignore etc., the horrible plight of their fellow brothers and sistes. As MLK Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." If we want justice in the world, we cannot let it exist anywhere. Hopefully, our work this week will bring us one step closer to a just world.

"guys, let's do something"

The officially first day of our service. We split the team into two. One team went to the fund raising activity for Movable Feast. Another went to the Movable Feast kitchen to prepare food. Both team had a fantastic kick off and let's hear about what people say about their feelings.


Taqwa says: Today our group volunteered at Moveable Feast - an organization that serves customers with various health illnesses (such as AIDS) by delivering meals to them. We made bagged lunches (sandwiches with chips and juice) and we also packed frozen dinners bags that were to be delivered. The Movable Feast building was HUGE - which I did not expect. We finished quicker than I expected because there were so many of us, and I guess we were super energetic, so we worked fast. We go back again on Thursday - I am looking forward to it!

Tao says: I woke up early this morning since I was so excited about our first mission-work with Movable Feast to preparing food for homeless people Movable feast. The place resides in an impoverished neighborhood and it was almost hard to recognize from outside. It was really shocking when I actually saw the kitchen. It was professional, not only the appratas, but also the people there, although most of them are volunteers like us. The seven of us AB people were really devoted in our job   and we finished earlier. The most impressive part of today's service is that I realized that there are so many people out there are caring for people under poverty in Baltimore.
First is that people in Movable Feast show respect to people the tried to help. People who are receiving the food are referred to their "customers". Meanwhile, all the volunteers work in the kitchen are asked to sign the confidential contract to protect the information the "customers". That kind of sensitivity is very precious and showed us a good example of how to offer help in a good manner.

Second, people are offering real help. No one was inspecting but everyone is very efficient and focused. For my part I vividly felt the responsibility when I was on the shift. I can imagine that bagged food we prepared will be delivered in no minute. If we wrongly packed any of the packs, people received food will be greatly impacted(No one wants his/her dinners same everyday; and people with certain diseases should be kept away from certain food).

It was a lot of today but I did not really feel tired. I felt especially inspired when the guy supervise us told us that we were great help. Looking forward to visit Movable Feast on Thursday. I hope I could learn more about how the charity is working and how they envision themselves in this great mission of helping people.

Tasnia says: The rest of the group went to help out at an event put on by the National Association of Catering Executives that will benefit Movable Feast. The event is a design competition, with each designer assigned a different neighborhood in Baltimore. The country club was really nice, and all of the designs were really incredible. We helped the volunteers with moving furniture to set up the event. It was hard work but I’m glad we got to help out with the event. The event will raise a lot of money for Moveable Feast.

One of the things that really impressed me was how much work it takes to put on an event. The organizers had to think about every single detail and there’s a lot of things that you wouldn’t think of. I’m really excited to see how the event went when we visit the Moveable Feast facility on Thursday!

Sometimes the sky is just blue...

Sooo the first two days of our Alternative Break have been awesome! We bumped Kendrick Llama on the way here....we know, awesome. So we got here and unpacked got a tour of our place it was great. We are staying in this really nice church... here's a shot of the girl's room:

Doubling up bunk beds so clutch. We're hanging out in the Parish Center and here are some initial feelings from our group!:

Maria says...day two, we are still alive despite consuming the first batch of old bay ever produced. Also, everyone hates Taylor Swift, except Tasnia, who thinks she's just okay.

Tao says: It was actually first time that I came up with what the Urban Poverty really is. Along the way to Inner Harbor, I witnessed the shabby neighborhood and finally realize that great cities like Baltimore actually have such disparity in living conditions.

David says the art museum was really cool. Some of the pieces really had an impact on me.

Erinn says: I've been laughing hysterically at everyone so far. I need to chill.

Menghui says: I like the art museum and it is fascinating. I like to listen people chatting and I learned a lot of funny things from it.

Melanie can't believe we had a 20-30 minute serious conversation about Taylor Swift.

Taqwa: I liked the flatulence exhibit at the art museum. People made art depicting what their farts looked like. The only time farts have ever been pretty or cute.

Taylor says were just sharing a living space with ghosts and two dead bodies...no big deal.
(Side note: The church holds the crypt of the couple who built the church almost 100 years ago)

Tasnia: Stop hating on Taylor Swift guys, I actually really like her....

Clara is a huge Taylor Swift hater and don't even care. She also helped eat five pounds of pasta and is kind of in love with the American Visionary Art Museum.

Here's some pictures I took at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore:

Love, Tish and Lauren
ps: hopefully it doesn't snow tomorrow >:O

Welcome

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to our blog! I am so excited for our trip to Baltimore in the Spring to learn about urban poverty. We will be posting updates on this blog throughout our planning process, during the trip, and after the trip.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy derailed our plans to have our first pre-trip meeting last week. We have rescheduled our meeting to this Friday. I am excited to meet with our participants and discuss our social justice issue and get to know each other!

-Tasnia