UEmpower of Maryland uses food as an entry point to support residents and create community in Carrolton Ridge. Its flagship program, The Food Project, provides transitional employment to youth and young adults, as well as free, healthy meals to neighborhood residents.
A participant of The Food Project.
Michelle Suazo launched The Food Project as an after-school program that focused on nutrition and cooking for elementary- to high-school-age students. As a grassroots organization, it has evolved to meet the needs of its participants and now focuses on older youth and young adults, many of whom are disconnected from both school and formal work and want to earn money and plan for their futures.
The Food Project’s core work involves preparing, packaging, and delivering 400-500 healthy meals a week to low-income residents in Carrolton Ridge and surrounding neighborhoods, including Ascension St. Agnes Hospital and Baltimore Medical System patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes. Two part-time chefs from the neighborhood lead the meal preparation process and teach the youth culinary skills. Youth receive their ServSafe certification and are responsible for preparing, packaging, and delivering meals to families and individuals. UEmpower pays youth $13-$15/hour depending on the level of responsibility. UEmpower’s small staff and other nonprofit partners also help participants meet other basic needs, such as transportation; access to physical and behavioral health services; and identity documents, with the goal of helping them move into other full-time work. Last year, five participants successfully transitioned to other full-time, food-related jobs, including in hospital food systems.
Youth often walk into UEmpower’s doors looking for help, an opportunity, and community. To meet this demand, UEmpower has grown other social enterprises that reflect the youth’s personal interests. For the past five years, the organization has produced a snack called SeedyNutty™, which is sold in local stores and Oriole Park at Camden Yards. UEmpower renovated a nearby home, which youth use to test out their own projects, including cooking food and beverages that are sold at a pop-up restaurant a few evenings a week, as well as fabricating clothing and art that are sold in the boutique space. As many of UEmpower’s young participants are also parents, the initiative recently expanded to include early childhood programs. One participant, who is a young mother, is on her way to becoming a certified childcare provider with UEmpower’s support. She aims to establish a daycare center within the UEmpower facility.
I started to come to The Food Project in 2023 with my three daughters. We were sleeping on a sofa and looking for a job and housing. There I found resources and soon started working, helping with the pop-ups, private dinners and cooking the weekly homemade soup. I was able to get my ServSafe certification and take classes with Chef Cat. This experience helped me get a job at a hospital as a server. The best part was I able to get help with housing and for the first time my daughters had our own home. We are thankful to have a place like The Food Project in our community.”
– Christina, The Food Project Participant
Between 2018 and 2022, the Abell Foundation awarded four discretionary grants of $5,000-$10,000 to UEmpower. As the organization continued to expand its programs and deepen its roots in Carrolton Ridge, the Abell Foundation awarded $40,000 in general operating funds to UEmpower in 2022 and 2023.