By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
With Earth Day, April 22, a few days away, Christopher Dipnarine, founder of 4MyCiTy, shared how his nonprofit is helping people convert waste into a resource, prevent food waste and reduce food insecurity in Baltimore.
“4MyCiTy focuses on environmental sustainability, primarily through the vision of food waste,” said Dipnarine. “We’re trying to mitigate the harmful effects caused by food waste on the environment. I wanted to develop not just a typical food bank model, but a system that would close the loop on food waste.”
The nonprofit is also home to Maryland’s first zero-waste facility, which operates with an overhead cost of around $1 million.
4MyCiTy is built on four phases of sustainability, which include educating people about food waste and trying to stop it at the source, feeding the hungry and generating biodegradable energy via food waste and composting.
“Aside from nourishing a community in a food desert and recycling food scraps to develop nourishing soil additives, 4MyCiTy educates by example the importance of understanding the value in what we call waste,” said Mariama Changamire, who has known about 4MyCiTy since 2021.
According to the USDA, 30 to 40 percent of the American food supply is wasted.
In 2023, about 22 percent of African Americans dealt with food insecurity, over twice the rate of White Americans, according to Feeding America, a hunger relief nonprofit. The USDA, in 2023, said more than 9 million Black Americans could not access enough food to live healthily.
According to the USDA’s vehicle access definition, 50 percent of Baltimore City is classified as a food desert, and 42 percent of residents live in one.
Changamire shared her reaction to 4MyCiTy during her first visit.
“I was excited about fresh vegetable options and eager to enter a communal cycle of composting,” Changamire said. “What I found was community. Like-minded and kind neighbors helped me with selections of fresh vegetables, dry goods and protein–always with a smile.
“4MyCiTy has supplemented my monthly budget immensely as my diet is largely vegetables, fruits and grains, making it possible for me to maintain my practice of eating the nutrients my body needs to bear its challenges,” said Changamire, who has been diagnosed with cancer and multiple sclerosis. “My visits to 4MyCiTy have included exercise to get there and back and so much amazingly fresh produce to fuel my body in the way that matters most.”
Guy Johnson has benefited from 4MyCiTy since May 2022.
“It’s had a positive impact on my family,” Johnson said. “Not only do we receive fruits and vegetables daily, but I get to help seniors in my building who can’t get out or afford certain foods.”
Home Chef, a meal prep company, began a partnership with 4MyCiTy in late 2023 and has been donating food weekly ever since.
“Home Chef is all about making home-cooked meals achievable – and 4MyCiTy is a partner that helps us extend that purpose beyond our customers and into our communities we operate in, like Baltimore,” said Greg Butler, Baltimore plant director of Home Chef. “4MyCiTy is the perfect partner for reducing our overall food waste and loss, as they have deep connections in the community and are always looking for new ways to get food to those in need.”
Butler shared that Home Chef contributes a wide variety of items such as canned goods, grains, condiments and fresh produce.
“Having a well-rounded list of foods that we can donate not only means more Baltimore residents served, it means less edible food ends up in landfills,” said Butler.
“Home Chef has donated nearly half a million meals since we began our partnership with 4MyCiTy about a year and a half ago,” said Butler. “That’s over 500,000 pounds of food diverted from Baltimore landfills.”
Dipnarine shared that 4MyCiTy may lose about $800,000 due to cuts to federal environmental sustainability grants by the 47th president’s administration.
“We’re in a financial crunch this year,” he said. “Any donations or support would be greatly appreciated.”
To donate to 4MyCiTy, go to 4mycity.us/donate.