To The People of Calvert County:
Thank you Calvert County, for the compassion you have shown this past year. As our economy has worsened, you have stepped up.
Your actions prove that our destiny is less controlled by elected power and more controlled by the power of your willing hands and hearts.
We often talk of quality of life in our county. Usually we measure that by controlled growth and home values. I suggest that the better measure is the quality of our people. Your generosity suggests you agree. This year was a record breaking year and together we accomplished so much.
Because of your efforts, in 2011 End Hunger In Calvert County distributed over 450,000 pounds of food to our 11 Calvert partner food pantries. That food went to the needy in our county. To put that number in perspective, in 2008, our first year, End Hunger In Calvert County’s collected 23,000lbs of food.
Although Calvert County is one of our nation’s wealthiest counties, over 10,000 county residents now regularly use local food pantries. It seems hard to believe I know. But to anyone who has been laid off, or had your hours cut back, or seen work slow down, you know it’s true. Together we are filling the gap for people who have to choose between paying the mortgage or buying food.
In early 2011, End Hunger In Calvert County opened the End Hunger Warehouse to meet the county’s pressing for a local distribution center to serve our food pantries.
2011 also marked the launch of The Farms of End Hunger; farmland dedicated to supplying fresh produce and nutritional food options to hard-hit families. Hundreds of us came out during our Annual Community Harvest Day and thousands of pounds of white and sweet potatoes.
To the thousands of volunteers who got involved and dedicated your time to serving the community, from the deepest wells of gratitude I thank you for believing in our mission of feeding the hungry in our county. I wish you and your family a happy and blessed New Year and let’s get ready to make 2012 another year for the record books.
Together We Can,
Rev. Robert P. Hahn
Chairman of End Hunger of Calvert County
www.endhungercalvert.org
Watch our latest video, Together We Can.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, both the second annual Run to End Hunger in Calvert County and the inaugural Car, Truck and Bike Show, hosted by the Maryland Chevelle Club, attracted hundreds of participants.
Together, the events raised more than $6,000 for End Hunger in Calvert County.
“When I researched End Hunger in Calvert County;s website and visited one of their food pantries, I could not believe what I learned,” said Tim Deale, of the Maryland Chevelle Club, in a press release. “It is hard to believe that thousands of people are going hungry, right here in our own backyard. End Hunger in Calvert County is making a difference and I wanted to contribute.”
More than 115 runners and walkers throughout Southern Maryland supported the second annual 5k Run to End Hunger in Calvert County, held at Trinity United Methodist Church in Prince Frederick. The top three finishers of the morning were Shane Martz, 29, of Mechanicsville, Jordan Blankenship, 14, of St. Leonard and German Albalopez of Great Mills.
The inaugural Car, Truck and Bike Show was held at Bayside Chevrolet car dealership in Prince Frederick. The event had registered 172 vehicles coming from as far away as New Jersey, Virginia, Frederick, Dundalk and the Eastern Shore.
“It is events like these that show the true heart of Calvert County,” said the Rev. Robert P. Hahn, chairman of End Hunger In Calvert County. “Both the run and car show are events that happened because of two volunteers wanted to get involved and made them happen. There is something everyone can do. The car show and run prove just that.”
To learn how to get involved, go to End Hunger In Calvert County online at www.endhungercalvert.org.

Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry, a ministry of Chesapeake Church and affiliated food pantry of End Hunger In Calvert County, is recognized as Maryland Food Bank’s Rural Partner of the Year at their Annual Partnership Conference.
Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry received the award for their innovative programs that serve the hungry in Calvert County while still teaching and encouraging self-sufficiency. In addition, the pantry is used as a model of leadership and excellence for all of Maryland Food Bank partners throughout the state.
“Chesapeake Cares has been a leader since day one,” says Deborah Flateman, Chief Executive Officer of Maryland Food Bank. “With their commitment to efficiency and effectiveness, they quickly progressed from a local church pantry to the guiding force behind a county wide safety network of organizations dedicated to the sole cause of ending hunger in Calvert County.”
Over 10,000 individuals in Calvert County currently utilize local food pantries. Of those clients, 44% are children. Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry has been serving the hungry and neediest residents of Calvert County for over 10 years. For the last four years, they have been the anchor pantry of End Hunger In Calvert County and a partner of the Maryland Food Bank for three.
About End Hunger In Calvert County:
End Hunger In Calvert County is an association of over 50 business and community leaders united behind the idea that hunger can be defeated in our county.

Donating a canned product is one thing; spending hours on a Saturday picking potatoes in a field is another.
Though the former is highly appreciated, the individuals behind the End Hunger in Calvert County could not contain their gratitude on Saturday when more than 100 volunteers came out for the first ever Community Harvest at the Farms of End Hunger in Calvert County.
Throughout the day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the majority of these volunteers were outside picking potatoes that will go to the initiative’s 10 partner food pantries throughout the county, the majority of which are based at churches.
Jacqueline Hahn, the director of communications with End Hunger in Calvert County, explained that the organization now owns 11 acres of farmland: Five of the acres were at Spider Hall Farm near the End Hunger Schooner Lane warehouse in Prince Frederick and the other six were at Serenity Farm in Benedict.
End Hunger in Calvert County Director of Operations Cathy Ring explained that since the fields at Spider Hall Farm, where the sweet potato crop was located, were damp, Saturday’s group spent the day at Serenity Farm picking solely white potatoes.
“We’re learning the farming business as we go so we keep adjusting, we keep adapting,” Ring told a group of volunteers on Saturday as they were sorting the potatoes in the warehouse.
Ring explained that for the first three years of End Hunger in Calvert County, the Farms program which strives to provide fresh, locally grown produce for individuals utilizing the food pantries used borrowed space from Kelly Generator and Equipment Inc. in Owings.
“This will be the first year that we’ll be in our own space,” said Ring, continuing that in the warmer months, zucchini, watermelon and cantaloupe will be harvested.
Former state senator Bernie Fowler spent three hours Saturday in the field picking potatoes but said he was there more as a proud parent than a public figure.
His son, Bernie Jr., was one of the first to get involved with the Farms program, Fowler said.
“It’s been a tremendous success,” Fowler said. “They’re doing it because they really care and that’s the Calvert County I’ve known all my life.”
Fowler marveled at the number of people in the field with him.
“This is a humongous undertaking,” Fowler said, adding that the comfortable temperatures outside “reinforce my basic concept that there’s someone better than we.”
Fowler’s wife Betty said she spent the day sorting potatoes inside as she was still recovering from surgery and couldn’t be outside picking.
“I’m in a brace but I wanted to be in here working,” Betty said.
She explained that if the potatoes had any imperfection they were put in a box for any volunteer who might want to cook them at home.
by LAURA BUCK, Staff Writer
lbuck@somdnews.com

Elk’s Lodge 2620 of Prince Frederick and the Spiritualist Society of North Beach (SSNB) raised $1,700 combined for End Hunger in Calvert County (EHCC).
Through their sponsored events, the Elk’s Summer Shrimp Feast, and SSNB’s Annual Charity Fundraiser the organizations raised $800 and $900 respectively by selling tickets with proceeds benefiting EHCC. Though the Elk’s Lodge and SSNB operate with different purposes, they both have the same desire and that is to serve and focus their efforts to supporting local charities.
“Spiritualist Society of North Beach is focused on providing for those in need in Calvert County,” said Nancy M. Roczek, a member of the board of directors for the Spiritualist Society, in a press release. “We hosted our first charity event for End Hunger in Calvert County. We had a great turnout and people donated salads, desserts, and their time to make the event a success. We also had the support of local businesses (Roland’s Grocery and Blondie’s) that donated food items. In addition, Abigail Fransisco School of Classical Ballet Dance Ensemble performed for the guests and together we raised over $900 for this wonderful organization.”
“Calvert Elk’s Lodge 2620 was honored to present a check for $800 to End Hunger in Calvert County at our Family Day Picnic, this year,” said Fred Wiles, the lodge’s leading knight for Elk Lodge 2620, in the press release. “The Elks are built upon four primary principles, one of them being charity. I believe we should take care of our local community first, so I have chosen to direct our focus on supporting local charities this year.”
“One of the greatest privileges I have is working with those who are gripped by need in Calvert County and are compelled to do their part,” said Jacqueline Hahn, director of communications for End Hunger In Calvert County, in the release. “That is what the Elk’s Lodge and Spiritualist Society have done; they truly embody our motto of ‘Together We Can.’ It is a honor to partner with both of them and I believe this is only the beginning because together we really can.”
EHCC strives to create real and meaningful ways for individuals, businesses and groups to get involved. For more information about End Hunger in Calvert County, go to www.endhungercalvert.org.
EHCC is an association of more than 30 businesses, 10 county food pantries, 26 churches and community groups united behind the goal of ending hunger in Calvert County.

While most food pantry programs can offer processed foods and boxed items with a nutritional value that only goes so far, End Hunger in Calvert County plans to take it one step further and add fresh fruits and vegetables to the menu.
EHCC, a nonprofit organization made up of more than 50 county businesses and community leaders dedicated to ending area hunger, has spent the past three years working with local food pantries, collecting and distributing nonperishable food items to families in need. This year, it is teaming up with Spider Hall Farm of Barstow and Serenity Farm of Benedict to bring fresh produce to its mission.
The Rev. Robert Hahn, EHCC chairman who began the nonprofit using the Chesapeake Church’s food pantry, said plans are already under way with the help of a variety of individuals and groups, including the newly coined “Farms of End Hunger,” Calvert County Public Schools and Bernie Fowler Jr. The organization now has 11 acres of leased land split between Spider Hall and Serenity farms and is starting to grow potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini and cucumbers, with other items planned for the future.
“It’s really about the essence of the Calvert County community,” Hahn said. “This is a community that has historically taken care of itself.”
With about 10,000 county residents currently using the food pantries, 94 percent of whom have jobs and nearly half of those patrons being children, Hahn said he is concerned that the number will continue to rise during the recession as more people are laid off. He said he wants to see that these local families have a shot at eating well-balanced meals.
“When you can put a salad on the dinner table or a vegetable next to the Hamburger Helper, you feel like a family again,” Hahn said. “There are people who are going to lose their jobs in the next three or four months. We’re already moving to meet the need people don’t even know they have.”
But the plan is barely even 6 months old. Fowler, who attends Hahn’s church and wanted to volunteer for EHCC, arranged a partnership between the nonprofit and the Cox and Robinson families, the respective owners of Spider Hall and Serenity, where the farms would set aside acreage for EHCC produce to be grown, harvested and distributed. The cost of the land, estimated at about $3,000 per acre, Hahn said, will be managed by about 20 local businesses the group contacted for sponsorship.
In addition, the Poole family leased the organization 12,000 square feet of warehouse space in the Calvert County Industrial Park “at basement rates,” Hahn said. While the space currently has no flooring, once that is installed it will be used to store the usual shelved goods, along with a walk-in freezer, refrigerator and cooling area, to be purchased using $14,500 in grant funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Maryland Food Bank, he said.
Adjacent to the warehouse rests a sweet potato field, where Fowler said the goal is to have about 20 acres for crop planting by next year.
“I’m used to making a lot of things happen,” laughed Fowler, the son of former Maryland senator Bernie Fowler. “But before we get too grand or too big, let’s get something out of the ground. Then in the fall we’ll get a better perspective of how to move forward.”
The first EHCC crops were planted this spring, including six acres of potatoes at Serenity Farm. David Robinson, also a member of Chesapeake Church, said he wanted to get involved but wasn’t sure how until Fowler approached him.
“Bernie was brainstorming about the Farms of End Hunger and I had the property, I had the equipment; I felt it was something I was called to help out and do,” Robinson said, adding that “the good thing about a potato is it has a long shelf life. And there’s not going to be any chemicals on these at all.”
Robinson estimated about 90,000 pounds of food will be generated from the potato fields in the fall.
The rest of the produce will come from the five EHCC acres at Spider Hall, the guinea pig property for incorporating the Farms of End Hunger into the school system’s agricultural and civics curriculum.
Susan Cox, who owns the farm with her husband, David, and whose daughter, Catherine, already runs an agricultural education program with the school district, teaching the importance of agriculture to public school students, said the EHCC partnership will bring another level to their family vision.
“It’s more than just planting,” she said. “It’s actually getting to the heart of the people. It’s giving individuals the can-do attitude.”
The “can-do” part comes in when students start taking field trips to the farm to plant crops in the spring and return in the fall to harvest them. This past spring, second-graders from Mutual Elementary School and kindergarteners from Windy Hill Elementary School already visited the farm and planted gardens containing beets, radishes and kale.
“There were like 100 kids at a time in this little garden planting,” Catherine said.
The agricultural education business just launched last August, she said, and is targeted at elementary school students only for the moment. She hopes to build an agricultural education center on the property within the next three years, and there will be a place at the Spider Hall produce stand for patrons to donate to EHCC.
“Perhaps everyone will see how successful this is and will want to do a little more on their farms,” said Susan, a retired CCPS and Calverton School teacher.
“When they come out and harvest, some of them harvest food they themselves will be eating,” Hahn said, explaining the possible far-reaching impacts of the program. “There’s just a human value to knowing what goes on in the dirt. When people see that what they eat comes out of the ground, they might be less likely to pollute that ground.”
Also in the works, Hahn said, is a potential long-term relationship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with which U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D) is helping them. Government support has been “fantastic,” he said, also citing the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners and Sen. President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller (D).
But even if the political support wasn’t there, Fowler added, “We’re doing it either way.”

At the beginning of October 2010, End Hunger in Calvert County set a goal to collect 100,000 pounds of food throughout the month. What it ended up with was 30,000 pounds more than that.
The Rev. Robert P. Hahn of Chesapeake Church, chairman of the nonprofit, said Calvert County citizens continue to amaze him. In the group’s first year, the community donated 23,000 pounds of food; in the second year, End Hunger collected 86,000 pounds from the community. This year’s total surpasses that by more than 50 percent.
End Hunger’s mission is to join the community together in donating food items for families in need, to either the organization’s warehouse or numerous food pantries in the county. It is a collaborative effort of various county churches, spanning different Christian denominations, businesses and schools. Hahn attributed this year’s success to even greater participation from organized bodies who decided to donate to the cause.
“We had more churches, more businesses, the schools continue to raise more — Calvert [has] very generous people,” Hahn said. A total of 27 churches and 55 businesses participated.
This year also marked an End Hunger first, with a donation of 800 pounds of meat — enough to serve 3,200 meals, Hahn said — from the Patuxent Young Farmers 4-H Club and the Calvert County 4-H Livestock Auction Committee.
“What those kids did is exactly what End Hunger in Calvert County is all about,” Hahn said. “It’s about grassroots, people feeding their neighbors.”
Most of the 130,000 pounds raised, however, have been all but used already, Hahn said. At Chesapeake Church alone, the number of people in need of its church pantry has nearly doubled this year.
“We used to see 50 to 60 people. It’s over 100 now in one day,” he said, and the second half of the recession is just beginning to hit Calvert. “So we’re predicting it to get a little bit worse.”
To combat this, End Hunger plans to bring on a part-time volunteer coordinator to help rally more people for the October 2011 cause; that will bring the organization’s staff to a total of two, the pastor said.
“Calvert County is one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., yet the poverty rate has gone up. One of the things that tend to get lost is the responsibility of the community. We’re responsible for each other,” Hahn said. “I think it’s a good way to teach responsibility to our children.”
Cathy Ring, the coordinator of the Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry and also the director of operations for all End Hunger food pantries, said she hopes the community learns, if nothing else, not to fall into the misconception that all people who use food pantries are lazy or struggling with drug addiction. She has witnessed firsthand the way End Hunger’s efforts have boosted self-esteem of people who visit the pantries.
“We’ve coordinated food drops at some of the different pantries, and families have come,” Ring said. “They are just so grateful for the assistance. It’s really that they become less invisible. … Right down to the smallest donation, each of those items is offering that family hope because they need that hope every day.”
For this coming October’s End Hunger mission, Ring said she would like to have a breakdown of how much food each pantry collected versus the warehouse. She fears some people only donate to the warehouse and don’t realize that direct pantry donations count toward the overall total.
“People still should support pantries because in the end it’s all a partnership,” she said.
<a href=”mailto:mrussell@somdnews.com”>mrussell@somdnews.com</a>
<strong><em>If you go</em></strong>
<em>This year’s End Hunger in Calvert County bike ride will be April 30 and will feature five different routes for beginners to more advanced riders. The event’s organizers anticipate about 500 riders. For more information and to register, go to<a href=”https://old.endhungercalvert.org/bike/” target=”_new”>www.endhungercalvert.org/bike/</a>.</em>