What Is Feed Our Future?
Feed Our Future is an initiative of the University of Maryland Extension (UME)-Baltimore City that employs a community development approach to meeting the needs and interests of underserved communities within Baltimore City, particularly those located in food deserts. i
Through community partnerships and collaborations, the UME-Baltimore City Feed Our Future initiative will support and nurture underserved communities in Baltimore City with research-based educational programming that focuses on major issues facing Baltimore City residents, which include: obesity, health, financial literacy, food quality, and access, the environment, and positive youth development.
i. The USDA defines a food desert as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles).
How is this going to work?
As a collective, all UME-Baltimore City educational program areas will work cooperatively to analyze and create a strategic plan to deliver targeted programming that will:
• Increase leadership, entrepreneurial, and workforce development opportunities for youth and adults that will foster economic stability in communities
• Increase basic knowledge of health issues for youth and families that can result in improved quality of life through physical activity, consumption of healthful food, and reduced risk of chronic diseases over time
• Increase basic financial literacy of city residents in areas relating to credit, debt, and spending
• Increase use and affordability of locally-grown, fresh food through the local market, community gardens, and high tunnel methods for community members and to create new re-development opportunities to reduce urban blight
• Increase advocacy and advisement by community members in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of watershed restoration projects