Manna House

Every year, as the anniversary of her mother's death approaches, something happens. She goes off -- somewhere, anywhere, and sometimes to Baltimore.This time, she ended up lost, a Jane Doe alive, dazed, helpless and afraid. "I want to be safe" were the only words anyone could understand her to say, and she said them repeatedly. "I want to be safe."She had driven south from New Jersey, left her car out on the interstate near Baltimore and, through circumstances not completely known, ended up sitting on the sidewalk at Greenmount and North.

The cooks at the Manna House soup kitchen in Baltimore routinely prepare low-salt meals, only to watch most of those sitting at the tables reach for the salt shaker. But that ingrained habit could be broken as the Baltimore Health Department teams up with Manna House and others in an educational program to curb consumption of the mineral so closely linked to cardiovascular disease, the nation's No. 1 killer and an especially intractable problem in poorer neighborhoods. Proponents of the effort say a modest reduction in salt consumption could save 700 lives here a year.

Scrambled eggs, applesauce and fried potatoes -- it may not be manna from heaven, but to Esther Reaves, it's close enough.Reaves, the director of Midtown Churches Community Association, had been forced earlier this summer to cut back on the daily breakfasts served at Manna House, a soup kitchen in continuous operation for 18 years in the Barclay area.Over the past year, the number of clients had doubled, pushing the cost of the program to more than $13,000 a month. The non-profit agency, unable to adjust its budget to meet the demand, shut down for most of July and cut back to Thursday through Monday schedule as of Aug. 1.This week, thanks to two volunteers, Manna House was back in operation on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

As outreach coordinator of John Carroll School, Sister Maryanne Zakreski is always looking for ways to get students to think about people outside their circle of friends and family. With that in mind, the school holds a canned-food drive each year that involves the entire student body, she said. "We want children to learn to think about someone other than themselves," she said. "We want them to see that they can make a difference." To participate, the John Carroll students spent four weeks, starting at the end of October, collecting canned soups, tuna, fruit, vegetables and other goods.

Manna House, the oldest of Baltimore's soup kitchens, is having trouble filling the pot these days. And managers fear the venerable Barclay charity may have to cut back operations if donations -- both financial and food -- do not increase."

On May 26, 2006, KATHRYN (nee Henderson) TOWSON beloved wife of the late Charles E. Towson, devoted mother of David E. Towson. Survived by one brother, W. Paul Henderson, also survived by four grandchildren, Daniel, Richard, Margaret and Peter and many great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the Henry W. Jenkins & Sons Funeral Home, 16924 York Road (Monkton/Hereford) on Saturday, June 10 at 11 A.M. Interment following at Loudon Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Manna House Inc., 435 E. 25th Street, Baltimore, MD, www.henrywjenkins.

As outreach coordinator of John Carroll School, Sister Maryanne Zakreski is always looking for ways to get students to think about people outside their circle of friends and family. With that in mind, the school holds a canned-food drive each year that involves the entire student body, she said. "We want children to learn to think about someone other than themselves," she said. "We want them to see that they can make a difference." To participate, the John Carroll students spent four weeks, starting at the end of October, collecting canned soups, tuna, fruit, vegetables and other goods.

Hope for the homeless in 1997 may come down to a word invented by Wade Blank, former man of the streets and now a dishwasher at Manna House, one of Baltimore's soup kitchens.The word:"Yougottawanna.""Yougottawanna do better," he says. "Yougottawanna feed your kids."This has always been so, he says, but a drive toward self-sufficiency is essential now that federal and state governments prepare to remove more of the social welfare safety net.The mentally ill, the addicted and the battered -- whether they have gotten to the point of wanting to or not -- must look to their own resources, however limited.

Thousands of Maryland children who rely on free and reduced-price lunches during the school year cannot get the same meals in the summer because onerous federal requirements keep communities from setting up programs, a national group has charged.Fewer than 20 percent of the 144,000 children in Maryland eligible for the subsidized meals received them in July 1991, the Food Research Action Committee (FRAC) announced today.While that percentage compares favorably with the national average of 15.1 percent, the state figure is skewed by the Baltimore program, which is considered one of the better in the country.

The cooks at the Manna House soup kitchen in Baltimore routinely prepare low-salt meals, only to watch most of those sitting at the tables reach for the salt shaker. But that ingrained habit could be broken as the Baltimore Health Department teams up with Manna House and others in an educational program to curb consumption of the mineral so closely linked to cardiovascular disease, the nation's No. 1 killer and an especially intractable problem in poorer neighborhoods. Proponents of the effort say a modest reduction in salt consumption could save 700 lives here a year.

On May 26, 2006, KATHRYN (nee Henderson) TOWSON beloved wife of the late Charles E. Towson, devoted mother of David E. Towson. Survived by one brother, W. Paul Henderson, also survived by four grandchildren, Daniel, Richard, Margaret and Peter and many great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the Henry W. Jenkins & Sons Funeral Home, 16924 York Road (Monkton/Hereford) on Saturday, June 10 at 11 A.M. Interment following at Loudon Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Manna House Inc., 435 E. 25th Street, Baltimore, MD, www.henrywjenkins.

SURE YOU'RE Right -- condensed by some into Surely Right, formalized by others into Shirley Wright -- lived for the longest time near Greenmount Avenue and, for part of it, in what her friends sardonically called an abandominium, one of the many vacant Baltimore rowhouses occupied by junkies and the homeless, and homeless junkies.Her real name was Sheila Henson, and she was born in this city on a February day 43 years ago. She grew up on North Carey Street in West Baltimore, the baby in a family of nine brothers and sisters.

Hope for the homeless in 1997 may come down to a word invented by Wade Blank, former man of the streets and now a dishwasher at Manna House, one of Baltimore's soup kitchens.The word:"Yougottawanna.""Yougottawanna do better," he says. "Yougottawanna feed your kids."This has always been so, he says, but a drive toward self-sufficiency is essential now that federal and state governments prepare to remove more of the social welfare safety net.The mentally ill, the addicted and the battered -- whether they have gotten to the point of wanting to or not -- must look to their own resources, however limited.

Every year, as the anniversary of her mother's death approaches, something happens. She goes off -- somewhere, anywhere, and sometimes to Baltimore.This time, she ended up lost, a Jane Doe alive, dazed, helpless and afraid. "I want to be safe" were the only words anyone could understand her to say, and she said them repeatedly. "I want to be safe."She had driven south from New Jersey, left her car out on the interstate near Baltimore and, through circumstances not completely known, ended up sitting on the sidewalk at Greenmount and North.

Esther Reaves thinks about it when she opens Manna House on weekday mornings, stepping over the homeless men sleeping outside the soup kitchen's doors. It's on social worker Jeff Singer's mind every time he meets with Harold Haddix, an alcoholic finally off the streets who may end up living in abandoned cars again."It's like a disaster or a hurricane is coming," says Peter Rolph of the Maryland Food Committee.The storm they see brewing is called welfare reform. Unpredictable and difficult to track, it sits just south of Baltimore, stalled over Capitol Hill.

Manna House, the oldest of Baltimore's soup kitchens, is having trouble filling the pot these days. And managers fear the venerable Barclay charity may have to cut back operations if donations -- both financial and food -- do not increase."

Esther Reaves thinks about it when she opens Manna House on weekday mornings, stepping over the homeless men sleeping outside the soup kitchen's doors. It's on social worker Jeff Singer's mind every time he meets with Harold Haddix, an alcoholic finally off the streets who may end up living in abandoned cars again."It's like a disaster or a hurricane is coming," says Peter Rolph of the Maryland Food Committee.The storm they see brewing is called welfare reform. Unpredictable and difficult to track, it sits just south of Baltimore, stalled over Capitol Hill.

SARA died in a motel bathtub in Baltimore during the early morning hours of a cold March day in 1988. As her two daughters slept in the one bed they all shared, Sara suffered an epileptic seizure, slipped under the bubbles and drowned.It was Michelle, the 15-year-old, who discovered her mother motionless in the soapy water. And so a homeless family dissolved one step further into a pair of motherless children in a new city where a motel room with one bed had been their address for almost nine weeks.