Food Committee

The Maryland Food Committee provided an incorrect title for Ralph E. Moore Jr. in an article in Tuesday's editions. He is chief operating officer of the agency.The Sun regrets the errors.Ralph E. Moore Jr., a specialist in low-income housing for 11 years at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and a longtime anti-poverty worker, has become chief financial officer of the Maryland Food Committee (MFC).Moore's duties will include those formerly held by the Rev. Douglas I. Miles, who resigned May 2 as MFC's program director in a dispute over its pending alliance with Action for the Homeless.

Volunteers work for free, doing jobs you couldn't pay anyone to do, and one of the fundamental truths of volunteering is this: It is the same 10 people. Whether you volunteer for your community, your church or your local hospital, you will find yourself working with the same core group on every project, whether it is mulching flower beds or raising money for a building fund. And nowhere are the faces more familiar than at schools, where you not only will be working with the same 10 people, but also will be working with them for 12 years.

Empty Bowls had a winning combination that raised nearly $100,000 for the Maryland Food Committee. Even though the party was held at the beginning of Preakness Celebration activities, more than 500 guests attended this benefit. People were taken back to 1969, the year the Food Committee was founded, thanks to Dorothy and Paul Wolman and their P.W. Feats wizards, who handled the Boumi Temple transformation.I would say 95 percent of the guests got into the spirit of the evening, wearing love beads, tie-dyed clothes, beehive hairdos, headbands, grubby jeans and T-shirts -- it was not a time known for sartorial elegance.

Bags of Plenty is under way again.For the 13th year, the Maryland Food Bank and Maryland Food Committee are appealing for money and nonperishable food to help more than 20,000 needy people who eat daily at soup kitchens and food pantries around the state."

VOLUNTEER Rose Kalka says she became tired of hearing about hunger ''everywhere I went. So last winter I volunteered to the Maryland Food Committee.''I've never been hungry, unemployed or unable to support myself, and I'm lucky. Volunteering is my way of helping those who can't help themselves,'' says Kalka, who works evenings at the Cultured Pearl Cafe in the Hollins Market area.She gives one day a week to MFC, doing office work or mailings, ''whatever they want me to do.'' She was active in the recent RSVVP fund-raiser during which 260 area restaurants gave 10 percent of one evening's proceeds to MFC.The Maryland Food Committee is a non-profit advocacy organization formed in 1969 by local teachers, physicians and religious leaders to address chronic hunger.

Two nonprofit groups serving Maryland's homeless and hungry will form an alliance Tuesday under one leader -- a move that has caused controversy over his selection.Robert V. Hess, executive director of Action for the Homeless, a lobbying group with a $700,000 budget, will retain that job and become president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Food Committee, an agency with a $3 million budget operating various programs for low-income Marylanders.Hess, who has been at the helm of Action for the Homeless since October 1995, said the two groups will maintain separate identities while a committee studies the feasibility of merging, perhaps within a year.

When Sara Eisenberg, executive director of the Maryland Food Committee, came to the group 13 years ago, Maryland had 50 emergency feeding programs. Today more than 600 soup kitchens and food pantries operate in the state."

Fewer people this Thanksgiving than last can give thanks for the food on their table. A Maryland Food committee survey of 30 Central Maryland soup kitchens found their clientele to be up one-third in a year to 18,000 people. That's not the Third World; it's Greater Baltimore.The Bags of Plenty campaign of the Maryland Food Committee gives everyone an opportunity to help feed someone who desperately needs it. Contributing food or funds to this campaign will not save the world. It will keep a hungry Baltimorean fed a little longer.

The Bags of Plenty are overflowing and none too soon, say activists to relieve hunger.The 10th annual food campaign to provide emergency food for homeless and other hungry Marylanders is ending its 1996 drive ahead of last year's collection of food and money, the Maryland Food Bank and Maryland Food Committee said yesterday.The statewide drive bagged more than 215,000 pounds of food and $53,000 in cash and checks, 7.5 percent and 12.8 percent increases, respectively, above the 1995 totals of 200,000 pounds and $47,000.

It's brown bag time again.The 10th annual Bags of Plenty campaign for food and money donations for hungry people begins tomorrow with a call for help because of what organizers call an alarming increase in demand for services by soup kitchens and emergency food pantries.Constance Row, acting executive director of the Maryland Food Committee, said the state estimates 17,000 people in Maryland FTC between ages 18 and 50 face cuts in food stamps because of changes in welfare. Many children are among Maryland's hungry, she added.

Two food drives, one new and one old, gathered far more groceries than expected for the poor and needy of Northwest Baltimore and Maryland, drive officials said yesterday.In the first Hanukkah for the Hungry drive, students at 29 preschools, Hebrew schools and day schools collected about 5,000 pounds of food, said a representative of Kosher Food Pantry of Jewish Family Services.Donors also gave $2,500 in the December drive. Of all participating schools in the Baltimore area, Annapolis and Frederick, Beth Israel's Congregation School in Baltimore gave the most: $500 as well as several hundred pounds of food.

The 11th annual Bags of Plenty food drive for the needy in Maryland fell one-third short of its cash goal, but collected the most food since its early years.The campaign from Nov. 11 to Dec. 6 raised $40,819 -- about $20,000 short of the goal and the $59,000 raised last year, said Robert J. Hess, president of the Maryland Food Committee.Donors gave 279,860 pounds of nonperishable food, which was almost 38,000 pounds more than the 241,910 pounds given last year, said Bill Ewing, executive director of the Maryland Food Bank.

The Maryland Food Committee provided an incorrect title for Ralph E. Moore Jr. in an article in Tuesday's editions. He is chief operating officer of the agency.The Sun regrets the errors.Ralph E. Moore Jr., a specialist in low-income housing for 11 years at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and a longtime anti-poverty worker, has become chief financial officer of the Maryland Food Committee (MFC).Moore's duties will include those formerly held by the Rev. Douglas I. Miles, who resigned May 2 as MFC's program director in a dispute over its pending alliance with Action for the Homeless.

Two nonprofit groups serving Maryland's homeless and hungry will form an alliance Tuesday under one leader -- a move that has caused controversy over his selection.Robert V. Hess, executive director of Action for the Homeless, a lobbying group with a $700,000 budget, will retain that job and become president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Food Committee, an agency with a $3 million budget operating various programs for low-income Marylanders.Hess, who has been at the helm of Action for the Homeless since October 1995, said the two groups will maintain separate identities while a committee studies the feasibility of merging, perhaps within a year.

The Bags of Plenty are overflowing and none too soon, say activists to relieve hunger.The 10th annual food campaign to provide emergency food for homeless and other hungry Marylanders is ending its 1996 drive ahead of last year's collection of food and money, the Maryland Food Bank and Maryland Food Committee said yesterday.The statewide drive bagged more than 215,000 pounds of food and $53,000 in cash and checks, 7.5 percent and 12.8 percent increases, respectively, above the 1995 totals of 200,000 pounds and $47,000.

The Bags of Plenty are being filled, but officials say more stuffing is needed this Thanksgiving week.The annual food drive for Maryland needy has collected almost 100,000 pounds of food, and organizers are "cautiously optimistic" about topping last year's total of 200,000 pounds."

More than 109,000 pounds of food and $32,000 in donations have been collected so far in the annual Bags of Plenty campaign, a program of the Maryland Food Bank Inc. and the Maryland Food Committee.The collections are enough to provide Thanksgiving baskets to some 5,000 poor families and represent donations from more than 7,000 contributors. This year's campaign aims to raise at least $150,000 and 425,000 pounds of food.Donations will be used to meet emergency food needs this winter and for self-help programs.

When Nancy Wanich-Romita was asked to create a dance for an evening of entertainment to benefit the Maryland Food Committee, she wanted to know more about the nonprofit organization's work."

It's brown bag time again.The 10th annual Bags of Plenty campaign for food and money donations for hungry people begins tomorrow with a call for help because of what organizers call an alarming increase in demand for services by soup kitchens and emergency food pantries.Constance Row, acting executive director of the Maryland Food Committee, said the state estimates 17,000 people in Maryland FTC between ages 18 and 50 face cuts in food stamps because of changes in welfare. Many children are among Maryland's hungry, she added.

Carroll Food Sunday accepted a $2,000 emergency donation yesterday from the Maryland Food Committee, a day after the charity's board of directors voted to lay off its operations manager in a desperate move to keep the organization afloat.The private, nonprofit food bank could close within two weeks unless it receives more cash contributions, board members said."In the 14 years we've been open, we've never had this bad a financial crunch," said Anna Rollins, chairwoman of Carroll Food Sunday's board of directors.