Priority Partners Teams Up with HGTV Hosts for ‘Cupboards Project’

Addressing Food Insecurity with Community Food Pantries

Food insecurity is a complex social issue with many causes and associated health consequences. Over 640,000 Marylanders are currently facing hunger, nearly 196,000 of which are children. In fact, one in seven children in Maryland face hunger daily, and the Maryland Food Bank estimates that roughly two million residents may face food insecurity in 2022. This includes residents living both below the Federal Poverty level as well as those above that line — people who are working, yet still struggle to afford basic necessities. Many Marylanders are but one missed paycheck or unexpected event away from being food insecure, so Priority Partners reached out to its community partners to take on the crisis at a local level.

Teaming up with HGTV hosts Matt Muenster and Chris Grundy, Priority Partners initiated the Cupboards Project — a far-reaching program to design, build and install mini food pantries stocked with free healthy foods throughout Maryland. The TV personalities, Priority Partners employees and community members collaborated and competed to create a winning cupboard design for installation. After a public voting, the winning design was built and prepped for install in communities in need.

Priority Partners sought strong community partners to house the Cupboards. As of March 2022, three Cupboards have been installed and stocked, providing free food and nutrition resources to anyone who needs them:

1. Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford and Cecil Counties
   Edgewood Club, 2002 Cedar Dr. Edgewood, MD
2. Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford and Cecil Counties
   Aberdeen Club 101 E. Bel Air Avenue, Aberdeen, MD
3. Harbor West Collaborative (Westport Community Development)
   2401 Harman Avenue, Baltimore MD

Priority Partners also earned local buy-in with Baltimore chef and food personality, Chyno, helping to amplify the effort and ensure the resources are known and used.

The Cupboards Project progress has been video documented in chapters as each stage of the program unfolds and Marylanders begin to benefit. The team also boosted the impact and visibility to the program by hosting installation events with free giveaways and encouraging neighbors to “take what they need and leave what they can” in order to maximize the effectiveness of the project outreach.

Several more Cupboards are planned, all of which are regularly stocked by community partners with free healthy foods. Additionally, the next exciting chapter of the Cupboards Project concentrates on outfitting a trio of mobile pantries. Now in the design-fit stage, the three mobile pantries will be custom-converted school buses, operated by the regional and local Boys & Girls Clubs, and are anticipated to be completed and in service by late spring of this year.