Stepping Up For Baltimore
The team at Hotel Revival put together hundreds of bags of free lunches and fresh produce.
From large-scale donations to grassroots acts of love and kindness, Baltimore’ s tourism community made the best of a terrible situation.
On a typical Saturday, Donte Johnson, general manager of Hotel Revival, would be greeting travelers from around the world and ensuring his guests are enjoying their time in Baltimore. But when the pandemic hit and Maryland’ s stay-at-home order began in March, Johnson and his team spent their weekends handing out hundreds of free bagged lunches and fresh produce in partnership with organizations like Hungry Harvest and Coastal Sunbelt Produce.
“ The spirit of service is embedded in the Hyatt business culture. It’ s just what we always do,” Johnson says.“ We like to go to sleep at night knowing we made the world a better place and put smiles on people’ s faces.”
Johnson and his team’ s dedication to service is just one example of how the members of Baltimore’ s hospitality industry found new ways to give back during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit Baltimore President & CEO Al Hutchinson says these acts reflect the tourism community’ s resilient spirit and shared commitment to building a better Baltimore.
“ Those who are called to work in tourism have built their careers based on service to others and I am proud to see so many tourism leaders finding a way to use their skills to serve others during this emergency,” he says.
As part of its celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week, Visit Baltimore highlighted the ways the city’ s hotels, restaurants and retailers found new purpose during the toughest times.
In addition to feeding those in need, Hotel Revival offered free rooms to first responders, health officials and the Maryland National Guard. They also made their kitchen available to restaurants or chefs who lost a place to cook.
Other hotels, such as the Lord Baltimore Hotel, donated their rooms to front-line workers and those who needed to self-isolate. The Sagamore Pendry donated all proceeds from the purchase of Pendry Cares gift certificates to the Hearts of Montage Associate Relief Fund, which benefits
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