PHOTO : JASON BASS
the hospitality company ’ s associates and their families who were impacted by the crisis .
Since the start of the pandemic , Centerplate , the Baltimore Convention Center ’ s in-house caterer , donated food to nonprofits in need like Helping Up Mission and Meal Connect . The staff also donated their time to the Maryland Food Bank , volunteering to sort pallets of dry goods .
Jimmy ’ s Famous Seafood raised more than $ 4,000 and offered free meals to all first responders and hospital workers who are on the front lines to fight COVID-19 .
Pivoting to Meet Demand
Baltimore ’ s breweries and distilleries also found new ways to leverage their expertise for the greater good . Both Sagamore Spirit Distillery and Old Line Spirits temporarily converted their distilling operations to produce hand sanitizer for front-line workers . Sagamore was able to deliver more than 54,000 liters to Johns Hopkins Hospital .
Thanks to Visit Baltimore , hand sanitizer from Old Line Spirits and Sagamore Spirit was donated to the NAACP Baltimore branch as well as Hotel Revival . Old Line even matched the donation to double the impact .
Visit Baltimore also donated resources to Belmont Elementary School , the Baltimore Convention Center ( which was transformed into a temporary field hospital ), the Italian Cultural Center and the HARBEL Community Center .
And Guinness donated profits from its curbside beer sales to the Maryland Food Bank , a nonprofit that works to make sure no Marylander goes hungry .
A coalition of local manufacturers known as Makers Unite was created by Open Works , a maker space , to support the growing need for personal protective equipment during the start of the national health emergency . The initiative created more than 10,000 face shields with 3-D printers and recruited SewLab USA to produce face masks with an additional two internal layers made of antimicrobial bamboo and charcoal .
Pitching In Where It ’ s Needed Most
Baltimore ’ s professional sports teams are spending time and money to help Charm City weather the pandemic .
The Baltimore Orioles and the Baltimore Ravens both donated millions of dollars to support local nonprofits as well as their own employees that were impacted by the delay of the baseball season . The temporarily vacant stadium complex was used to distribute meals , thanks to the Salvation Army and World Central Kitchen .
“ Providing a safe place to sleep , a hot meal to eat and the equipment people need to stay healthy are vital to our collective well-being , and I am proud to see our tourism community rising to the occasion to meet those needs ,” Hutchinson says . “ It ’ s this willingness to be nimble and to invent new ways of serving the community that will be the keys to rebuilding our industry when this unprecedented crisis is behind us .”
Visit Baltimore was able to donate gallons of hand sanitzer to local community centers at the start of the pandemic .
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