The University partners with the University of Maryland Medical Center and WJZ-TV on the annual drive, raising more than $54,000.
The holidays are here, and every November the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Staff Senate and Office of Community Engagement collaborate to provide Thanksgiving meals for our neighbors in West Baltimore. This year, UMB combined efforts with the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and WJZ-TV to maximize the reach and impact of the annual Thanksgiving Drive.
(Watch video below.)
“We are so glad to be able to partner with UMMC and WJZ this year because it significantly broadened our reach,” said Brian Sturdivant, MSW, UMB’s director of strategic initiatives and community partnerships. “We have never collected quite this much, and we’ve never been able to help this many families, so the success of this year’s drive feels amazing.”
The original goal for the drive was to raise $45,000. With the combined efforts of UMB, UMMC, and WJZ-TV, donors crushed that figure, raising a total of $54,769 that provided Thanksgiving meal baskets to 1,484 families in West Baltimore. Each basket contained a frozen turkey, a box of fresh produce from Hungry Harvest, and a booklet of heart-healthy recipes — everything neighbors needed to cook a Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings.