Despite virtual schooling throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, food and nutrition workers in Baltimore City Public Schools continued serving around 88,000 meals per day. Now, the local unsung heroes are being recognized for that work—in addition to the work they’ve done for decades to bolster school nutrition—in a new art exhibit titled Food for Thought. 

The Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) partnered with the school system to celebrate the district’s 573 food and nutrition service workers with the installation, which is on view in the lobby of the Baltimore City Schools headquarters at 200 E. North Avenue (free and open to the pubic during normal business hours) through June 2023.

There, spectators can browse nine worker portraits by local photojournalist—and Baltimore School for the Arts teacher—J.M. Giordano, as well as audio clips recorded by WYPR radio producer Aaron Henkin. This preview exhibition—which can also be explored online—precedes a larger display set to open at the BMI in January 2023, which is set to provide more context about food insecurity in Baltimore, as well as additional information on how the school system addresses the issue.

“This is a very moving tribute to our staff,” says Anne Rosenthal, food and nutrition specialist with Baltimore City Schools. “The portraits and words make their stories come to life. These workers are generally in the background and deserve more acknowledgement…It’s cool to bring these stories to the forefront and honor them in a meaningful way.”

When city schools had to shut down due to COVID-19 in March 2020, there was still a need for weekday meals. To ensure students were fed, food and nutrition service employees opened 28 emergency grab-and-go sites with pre-packaged meals and fresh produce. They also offered home delivery for medically fragile and high-needs students. That year, staff prepared and distributed more than 11 million meals.

“We’re delighted to be able to shine a spotlight on the workers who cared for Baltimore’s students and their families throughout the pandemic by tirelessly packaging and distributing meals to their communities,” says Beth Maloney, director of interpretation at the BMI and a member of the curatorial team for Food for Thought. “In some instances, these were the only meals families received, as many households depend on schools to provide regular meals to their children.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, schools are essential to meeting the nutritional needs of children. In fact, many students consume up to half their daily calories at school. In Baltimore City Schools, meals have been free to all students since 2015. A report published that same year by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, in collaboration with the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative, found that nearly 30 percent of school age children live in a food desert with limited access to healthy options. (A food desert in Baltimore City is defined as an area where residents must travel more than one-quarter of a mile to reach a supermarket; the median household income is at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level; over 30 percent of households lack access to a vehicle; and the supply of healthy food is low.)

“It’s important to acknowledge the hard work being done behind the scenes,” Maloney says, “and to educate the public about the immediate threat of food insecurity in the country.”

The BMI, of course, focuses on the experiences of working people in Baltimore, so when staff from the school system reached out with the idea to honor the meaningful contributions of food and nutrition service workers during the height of the pandemic, the museum committed to working with them immediately. Several focus group sessions were held, in which workers who were interested in participating could ask questions and share their ideas.

“They see themselves as part of the learning environment, because students can’t learn if they are hungry,” Maloney says. “Many have been with their departments for over 30 years.”

Wanda Moore, one employee featured in the exhibit, has been a food and nutrition service worker for nearly 25 years, preparing food at several schools throughout her career, including Glenmount Elementary/Middle, KIPP Harmony Elementary, and Leith Walk Elementary/Middle. She says seeing the exhibit for the first time “really warmed her heart.”

“It brings a smile to my face,” she says. “It’s a great pleasure to see your hard work hanging on a wall.”

Rosenthal, the food and nutrition specialist with the school system, says staff members were excited to tell their stories.

“They were partners in the creative process and helped determine how the final project would culminate,” she says. “The pandemic really shed a light on how schools serve as safety nets for students by helping to meet their basic needs. Staff didn’t really get a break. The employees adjusted how and when they served and worked as frontline heroes.”

Rosenthal adds that an overarching goal behind the exhibit is for it to help remove the negative stigma around school meals. “There is a misunderstanding about what is served in our cafeterias,” she says, adding the meals are tightly regulated by federal nutrition standards and, on average, are healthier than the food available to a child at home.

Gail Pendelton, another employee who was photographed, has been working in food and nutrition for nearly 35 years: “My favorite thing about the job is knowing I helped provide kids with nutritious meals,” she says. “They ask questions about the food, too, which contributes to their learning experience.”

In her portrait, Pendelton is holding a mask in her hand—a tangible sign of the times.

“If my great, great grandchildren ever come across the project, they will know I helped children during a pandemic,” she says. “I love the kids so much…They are the most important thing, no matter what is happening.”

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Earlier this month, the theater debuted Be You!—a series of summer arts and creativity camps specifically for gender diverse kids ages 6-18. In partnership with Chase Brexton Health Care, the two-week programs (the first two sessions concluded on July 21, while one more session is scheduled in Columbia July 25-August 5) are offered tuition-free, thanks to contributions from the Baltimore Community Foundation’s LGBTQ+ Fund and the William G. Baker Fund.

Throughout the program, kids have the opportunity to participate in a variety of ensemble activities—including theatrical performance, creative writing, and film and video workshops—to develop their own artistic voices and collaborative skills. The first week is all about telling stories through various mediums (think everything from theater to puppet making.) And in the second week, the participants decide what medium they’d like to use to create a culminating performance for family and friends.

“I think it’s a really scary time to be a trans kid, so giving them a safe space where they can show up as authentic as possible is a really beautiful and important thing,” says B Kleymeyer, a resident artist at Single Carrot and the creator of Be You! “The goal of this camp is to create a community between trans youth that are the same age, because often they are not aware other kids like them exist.”

Transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 make up about 2.08 percent of Maryland’s population, totaling about 8,000 individuals, according to demographic data from the Williams Institute. While the term transgender is used to refer to those whose gender expression and/or identity varies from their gender assigned at birth, gender diverse individuals may not fit into any specific identifying gender, or they may fit into many. 

“We believe and know that gender is fluid,” says Single Carrot’s executive director Emily Cory. “We’re hoping to nurture participants’ creativity regardless of where they are on their journey and affirm gender identity through creative self expression.”

With around 45 kids registered to participate in the inaugural sessions, Cory says the response to the program is unlike anything Single Carrot has ever seen: “That makes it very clear this was missed in our community,” she adds.

Transgender and gender diverse youth are “a huge population that no one is creating programming for,” Kleymeyer explains. “[Growing up,] I would have wanted a space where I could be with other trans people.”

According to a 2022 national survey of LGBTQ+ mental health conducted by The Trevor Project, 73 percent of LGBTQ+ youth—including more than three fourths of transgender and nonbinary youth—reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety.

“Students are learning how to creatively express themselves as a way to process those feelings, which can be very toxic,” Kleymeyer says. “We’re also giving them a break from the onslaught of negativity, which is often exacerbated by their surroundings.”

Originally, Kleymeyer developed Be You! as a workshop in 2018 with the help of a grant from the Baltimore Community Foundation. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the project was put on hold.

“During that time, we heard from people who wanted the program to be more than just a workshop,” Kleymeyer says. Taking that feedback from the community, Be You! was expanded into a two-week summer camp.

Each camp session is led by a team of experienced teaching artists from the LGBTQ+ community, which is an important aspect of the program, according to Cory. By employing transgender and gender diverse leaders, the youth will work with mentors they can relate to.

So far, Kleymeyer deems the camp a success: “The students became close friends in such a short period of time,” she says. “They’ve already done amazing, impressive work.”

“It’s nice being around adults who accept me as being trans,” one student participant adds. Another says they had fun being able to act and create their own stories. “It’s important to connect with other people like us, and to know that we’re not weird.”

Overall, Kleymeyer says the program emphasizes joy, creativity, and community. It’s not meant to center around the transgender or gender diverse experience, but rather be an art camp like any other, “where kids can be joyful with other trans kids.”

“I hope the campers walk away with some sense of companionship,” she says, “and confidence in their creative voices.”

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