TIMONIUM, Md. —
Maryland students learn about food insecurity through the Empowering Minds Resource Center and the Baltimore Hunger Project.
The Baltimore Ravens are honoring organizations for making our communities better places to live. At Thursday night’s game, the organizations will be recognized with Honor Rows at M&T Bank Stadium.
In its sixth year, Empowering Minds is a program that brings together 10th- and 11th-grade students to learn about food insecurity in their communities. By definition, food insecurity is unreliable access to food.
“Our goal is to create young ambassadors to go back into their community and share with everybody what food insecurity is. So, we teach them about public speaking. We teach them about writing emails and thank you notes, as well as bringing in guest speakers (with whom) they can have informed dialogue,” said Lynne Kahn, executive director of the Baltimore Hunger Project, which she founded in 2014.
Summer Friedman, an 18-year-old student at The Park School of Baltimore, took part in the program last year.
“The Perspective Walk is (where) all the participants will start at the same line, and then we’ll say a scenario and they either walk forward or walk backwards based on their perspective,” Friedman told WBAL-TV 11 News.
This year, Friedman is a peer ambassador.
“I think about perspective and really about the privilege that each person has and how to use that privilege to do good in the world,” Friedman told WBAL-TV 11 News.
In one example, the students learn how different their lives are from other students who may live right next door.
“I’ve learned so much about how one bag of food can help a whole family,” said Vishvak Gernapudi, a 16-year-old Towson High School student.
“I’ve learned so much about how one bag of food can help a whole family.”
Each week, the Baltimore Hunger Project supports 2,600 students and 66 schools across Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
“The biggest thing I’ve taken away is not to judge someone by how they look or how they act. You never know what someone is experiencing unless you talk to them,” Vishvak told WBAL-TV 11 News.
“I think that food insecurity is really a misunderstood epidemic. I think it looks like me and you, and I think that what we try and do is teach our kids about empathy and how to walk in the steps of somebody else.”
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