CIIP: Week 1 🌮

Originally posted June 11, 2017

I am spending this summer working for the Black Church Food Security Network (literally a mouthful to say every time). This organization is a network of churches working to address food insecurity issues in Baltimore. This is done by building gardens at churches in the city.

My first week with the BCFSN (slightly better) was completely unexpected. Setting the tone on the first day, Rev. Brown, my supervisor, had me accompany a fellow church member on an in-the-field run, buying, cutting, and transporting lumber for a church in the network. We only had a few hours to accomplish all this so it was go, go, go from the time I arrived.

Each day from then on had a completely different mission at a completely different neighborhood in Baltimore. I spent two days at two churches in far west Baltimore listening and learning from pastors and understanding their take on food insecurity issues plaguing the city. This not only furthered topics from orientation, it also furthered my understanding of why this network is necessary. These pastors brought an unexpected charisma and care to these issues.

Besides actually working, I spent the majority of my trying to figure out where I’ll be going next and what I could do to prepare. Given that the unpredictability of this week was primarily due to it being the first week, I am glad to be commuting with my car to all these various locations (I couldn’t imagine the challenge of going to a new place literally everyday on public transportation and making it there on time). In addition to making it on time, I get an opportunity to really see the city as I drive from east to west- kind of perpendicular to the “white L” and across the “black butterfly”.

More on the racial divisions in the city, something I noticed was how even the modes of transportation is set up to benefit certain groups of people. When you look at a map of the city (one with roads), you see that for people living outside the “white L”, commuting from point A to point B means something completely different from someone who lives inside it. First, within the “white L” is the circulator which runs for free (conveniently only north and south bound), whereas outside, citizens have to use the MTA system which costs money. More relevant to me (someone with a car), I found it easier to commute in and out of the “white L” because of I-83 which conveniently runs through the middle of the city (north and south bound). When trying to commute from east to west, the only reasonable way to do so is via the beltway I-695. This only leads me to imagine how difficult it could be for someone living in the city without a car can easily commute all around the city efficiently and in a timely manner. While I am no means an expect on transportation in the city, I just found that interesting.

Overall, I did not spend this week doing as much work for the network, however the experiences I had with the other pastors and just sort of absorbing all I can about my surroundings, I feel even more prepared to really get into work next week. Rev. Brown will be away for the next week and a half, so we have lined up plenty of tasks and mini-goals to accomplish while he is gone. I will be making my way to every church in the network on behalf of the network with a few things to do. This week served to whet my appetite and I am beyond excited to see the good work we can do.