Leia is a 2-year-and-six-week-old lioness born and raised at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. She is being moved to the Cameron Park Zoological and Botanical Society in Waco, Texas, where she can grow up in an unrelated pride and be a companion to a 3-year-old male
The Maryland Food Bank is well known for providing food to people in need through its many programs. One of those programs, FoodWorks, not only helps reduce hunger, it also develops culinary skills in the aspiring chefs preparing the meals. Through a partnership with the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), the Maryland Food Bank offers 12 weeks of training in culinary arts to low-income people. Scholarships from the organization eliminate a financial barrier for many.
This is the first year in production for the Civic Works’ Real Food Perlman Place farm in Northeast Baltimore. Just over 20 varieties of vegetables, 5 types of fruit, and several herbs and ornamental plants have transformed vacant lots into productive land. According to their website, Civic Works’ Real Food Farms provide pesticide-free fresh food to people in nearby communities, train people for jobs help the watershed and educate local youth.
Second Chance, Inc., is a nonprofit corporation that sells reclaimed building materials, which fund job training and employment of Baltimore City residents who may have difficulties finding a job. Salvaged items in various categories are displayed in a 200,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Were it not for crews that carefully recover vendibles, many valuable materials, like lumber, vintage fixtures and appliances, might have ended up in an incinerator or a landfill.
Free items are often placed outside the warehouse. On a recent visit mattresses, windows, and pieces of furniture were available before the business opened for the day.
You may notice many faces hardened by time or design while walking downtown Baltimore. Some appear ferocious while others seem unconcerned about what goes on around them. Grotesques, chimeras and human figures provide a little something extra to the architecture around us.
I came to The Baltimore Sun via an internship in the late 1980’s and shortly there after was hired to work for the paper’s suburban editions. The process by which I produce and deliver images has evolved over the years beginning with processing film and making prints – to shooting with digital cameras and transmitting images with computers and broadband. But in truth what I do is essentially the same. I look for visual content that contains moments, emotion and design for The Sun and baltimoresun.com. Sometimes I find it.
Zookeepers at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore provide animal enrichment everyday to keep them stimulated and doing things that come naturally. On special days, the animals and visitors get an added treat made possible by the zoo’s Enrichment Team. The team was formed in January 2006. The volunteers assemble once a month to make colorful paper maché animals, balloons and other containers that will be filled with meat or produce and given to the animals on “Enrichment Days.”
From November to February the Conowingo Dam attracts over a hundred species of birds, but the bald eagles are the star of the show. What draws them to the giant hydroelectric dam, which located on the Susquehanna River, is the way it makes energy. As the dam produces electricity, a large volume of water and fish are sucked through the generators stunning the fish into “floaters” as they exit the dam downstream. The easy prey becomes an excellent food source for bald eagles and other birds.
Six Marylanders look back on the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, and its effect on their lives. Said Joyce Dennison, 71, a retired Baltimore schoolteacher: “It didn’t matter what socioeconomic group, religion or ethnicity you belonged to. There was a great feeling of humanity.”
Story by Jonathan Pitts
Portrait photos by Kim Hairston and Algerina Perna
The third installment of Hidden Maryland heads to Baltimore Carmelite Monastery, where 18 sisters from all walks of life garden, share meals, and cheer Baltimore sports teams in between devoting their lives to prayer.
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Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore street photographers
Year in review
Freddie Gray: protests, aftermath
24 hours with...
A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above