Our “A Cup Of Soup or Bowl Week” is designed to create awareness during these coldest weeks of the year to folks less fortunate and the humans and incredible organizations that power and support to the neediest families and children. Meet Caitlyn Kirby of Catonsville Emergency Assistance, who returns to State Fare to update Nestor on the impact of donations to feed families in 21228 and beyond through the Maryland Food Bank.
Caitlyn Kirby, Executive Director of Catonsville Emergency Assistance, discussed the organization’s 40-year history of providing food and other essential services to Catonsville residents. They serve nearly 700 families monthly, offering one week’s worth of food and up to $100 in utility assistance per family. Kirby emphasized the high food insecurity rate in the 21228 zip code, affecting one in three children. The organization relies heavily on monetary donations to sustain operations, as food donations are often insufficient. Despite challenges, such as weather-related closures, the organization remains committed to supporting its community.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
food insecurity, Catonsville assistance, Maryland Food Bank, utility assistance, eviction assistance, monetary donations, non-perishables, community support, food pantry, emergency services, local service area, food donations, public school, volunteer staff, grant funding
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Caitlyn Kirby, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively at State Fair. I mean, I’m looking at Dave Grohl. I see Madonna Kurt, Cobain Courtney, love I don’t know who that is. That’s Biggie, Smalls, but it’s Joan Jett. We cut out any veteran David Bowie here, but we’re at State Fair. It’s all brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the lucky magic eight ball. We are in day four of a couple Super Bowl. State Fair has really delicious cream crab corn soup. And I go over to Beaumont and El Guapo as well. We’re doing it all for the Maryland Food Bank. We are gathering food for people like this young lady. We’re about to meet Kate McCurry, is a recurring guest, a an invite back from the Catonsville to everybody about the Catonsville and what you do and to really support this community. Because I think when I’m in here with you, you’re gonna run into people, you know, here, right? I mean, this is, it’s the Ville is kind of that way in the 21228, right? Yes,
Caitlyn Kirby 01:03
it is. Thank you so much for having me. I’m actually the executive director of Catonsville emergency assistant. I
Nestor Aparicio 01:09
was gonna say that out loud, but I didn’t want to get get it wrong the CEA katiesville emergency assistance. She taught me so much about it last year, I had some stuff that that they came with me some some canned goods and different non perishables and donations. But I’m thinking, you do more than just food pantry kind of work over there, right? You’re, you’re like, sort of all encompassing, helping people all day. Um, well,
Caitlyn Kirby 01:32
we try our best. Yes, we actually have celebrated our 40th year, last year of serving Catonsville residents who are suffering from food insecurity. So we actually started as a food pantry in Alice marches basement. She was a member of the Catonsville community that saw a need back in the 80s, 40 years ago, 40 years ago, this past year. So we have a very long standing history of supporting the Catonsville community that’s in need. Yeah, so we’re actually located at 25 Bloomsbury Avenue. We serve almost 700 people by appointment within our local service area. It’s mostly 21228, and what we do is, once people are established as a neighbor of ours that we serve, we provide them with one week’s worth of food per month for their families, depending on their family size. We are partners of the Maryland Food Bank, and they are the ones that support us in grant funding. They are the ones that support us in regional gatherings where we actually get together with other local food pantries and talk about, what are best practices? What can we do better? How can we serve this population better? So they’re a great they’re a great resource, and they’re right down the street in halethorpe, so we’re lucky for that as well. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 02:50
Carmen del guetho came last year. We sat here. I haven’t cried yet this week, which is I cried enough. I lost a friend on Tuesday, so I cried plenty. But on the air, I haven’t. I’ve been a little tougher about it this year, in year two, and I’m hoping to do this every year. Moving forward, I think there’s going to be a real big game every year, maybe one year, the Ravens will be in it now, exit out and come back here in March and do these things. But in general, I learned so much last year about food insecurity and and resources that are available to people that are bubbling under the surface of what we see. You know, you see a homeless person on the street somewhere. You see, you think of a family that might not have as much, or maybe lost a job, or, I guess I was, I would say, blind to it. But I think there are those of you working this that there’s some grace that it that happens at churches, in different places that I didn’t recognize as a young kid, knowing that maybe there were other kids in school I was hungry because I didn’t eat my breakfast that my parents gave me, you know, and I was that spacey kid or whatever, that didn’t like breakfast. But there were other kids that, when I went into their homes and stuff, now that I look, it took me doing this for a week last year to think about man, my my friend Danny, when I was a kid, my friend Ralph, we went in. They didn’t have, like, a lot of furniture, and their parents didn’t invite us over for dinner. You know what I mean, like other people and I grew up, you know, in Dundalk, were in the 80s, 70s and 80s, Archie bunkers, Dundalk, as I say, and the steel mill, that there was certainly poverty amongst my classmates, people, my neighborhood, families, friends. I distinctly remember my father, a neighbor, asking for a loan for money at what, you know, just different things. And I’m wondering, I didn’t know where the food pantry was in my neighborhood. You know what I mean, when I was a kid, and if I knew about it, was probably a shameful, you know, society would shame people. I mean, you know, we’ll get into the government later on, shaming people who don’t have much. But the people that come to you, these are what kind of people are these? These are humble local people who are trying
Caitlyn Kirby 04:54
hard, right? Absolutely, most of the people that we serve are actually employed. Employed, but cannot make the ends meet for their families. And so a lot of times they are underemployed. A lot of times they’ve fallen on a hard time with their families. Maybe there’s an illness in their family where medical bills are taking away from their ability to buy the food that they need to buy and provide for their families. Perhaps they are retired and are not getting, you know, enough benefits and and cannot make the ends meet. So whatever it is, wherever they are, the reason that we have emergency in our name is Catonsville emergency assistance is we, we hope to be an emergent stop gap for them. So they come to us and they say, I can’t make my ends meet. What can you do for me? Well, the first thing I can do is I can provide you with that one week’s worth of food per month, which can offset your bills. The other thing that we do at CEA is we offer utility assistance. So we offer $100 for BG and E bills for those who qualify in our service area,
Nestor Aparicio 05:56
it’s cold this month per year, it was really cold this month we have had a
Caitlyn Kirby 06:01
huge increase in requests for utility payments. And again, we only give $100 per family, but it does allow them to
Nestor Aparicio 06:08
keep learning about this. Because, I mean, you know, I did this on food, food, food, and each of these I discuss any, I mean, today we’re going to discuss a whole bunch of different things all week long, about not just food insecurity, but just people in need, you know, people in need, period, whatever that is, in mental health, it could be anywhere, but people having resources to reach out to that I don’t think I would know about, you know, I think if I lost my job and I’m living in a ditch, who would feed me, who would care about me, probably a lot of people, a lot more people than I think, I hope they never get there, right, and find that out. But when that, when that happens, there are organizations that, I don’t want to say safety net, but certainly provide hope, you know, and provide another week’s worth of food for a family, absolutely.
Caitlyn Kirby 06:53
And that week’s worth of food is not just that. It can offset people’s bills. We also the third service that we offer in our center is eviction assistance. Now, eviction assistance is something where people are actually being court ordered evicted from their homes. So they have to be in the court process. They have to be within our service areas, and our funding is very limited on that. However, what we try to do is educate people. When they come in, they come and they say, I need eviction assistance. Well, what else do you need? Well, you probably need some utility assistance. Well, what else do you need? Oh, you could benefit from one week’s worth of food per month. Let us do that. The
Nestor Aparicio 07:30
first thing is housing, shelter, right shelter? Let’s start with that, right shelter. Absolutely
Caitlyn Kirby 07:34
you need the shelter, but you also, if you’re able to have the food provided to you, and you accept that food, then it offsets all of the costs that you have in your home. So again, it’s sort of a quality of life, and you can make your rent, you can make your mortgage, you can pay utilities, and then
Nestor Aparicio 07:51
most of these people are rent, obviously, right there, yeah, yeah,
Caitlyn Kirby 07:55
yeah. But then, but there’s a lot of but then a lot of dignity comes back, right? And that’s one of the things that our organization really wants to make sure that we do. We provide these people with a service, but they are our neighbors. They’re not just clients. We don’t call them clients. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. And you know, I have three children who are in public school right here in Catonsville, and one of the numbers that blew my mind when I started this job was 33% of 21228, is suffering from food insecurity. That means that one and three children that’s sitting next to my kids in public school, their tummies are growling because they friends or their families can’t provide enough food for them. So that’s a, really, you know, a mission for me. That’s, that’s very Catonsville in Catonsville, right? Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 08:37
yeah, yeah. I mean, you don’t think about it, right? Well, my wife and I leave Beaumont, or leave any of these places and we go to, I mean, I had a friend that lives on Bloomsbury. I know these back roads over here because I’ve been down most of them on a map, going over toward Wilkins or over toward I mean, it’s a beautiful kid. I mean, it really is. I mean, it’s like one of those places where, if you drive down molar street, you’re there’s mansions there that were built 100 years ago, and they’re all interesting and different. It’s, uh, it looks like it wouldn’t be that kind of neighborhood, or he’s on the outside to talk about that. And I think politically over here, it’s 50. It’s sort of a 5050, place, from what I could see in that way. And I think it’s sort of close enough to DC that there’s some bedroom community here going on. It’s it. It’s a different kind of community. And I thought of it as being maybe a little bit more on the Toni or than on the than not. And you smile at that and say no that you know that doesn’t matter where you are. You can talk about Ruxton or Towson. You probably have people that are having problems paying their bills, putting food on the table in some circumstances, absolutely,
Caitlyn Kirby 09:35
absolutely. Yeah. And Catonsville, unfortunately, is not an exception to that. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 09:40
Kaylee Kirby’s our guest. She is the executive director, which give me a title,
Caitlyn Kirby 09:45
Executive Director, is that right? Okay, Executive Director, yeah, thanks.
Nestor Aparicio 09:48
I think I remember that from last year. She is Catonsville. Tell me how they can give to you and if different. So one thing I want to say, though about that is, you said grants and Maryland Food Bank is. Stick you. I don’t want to get too much into the weeds of the paperwork part of this, but I would think big part of your job not just being nice and distributing and organizing and making food available and making sure that people are happy and they come in and they’re safe. But where the money comes from? Every time I talk to somebody in the university world, they’re trying to raise money. Anybody try to raise money? Yeah, raise the money. You got to raise money, right period, right? That is food or donations, right?
Caitlyn Kirby 10:26
Well, both, yes. So we, we absolutely accept food donations, mostly non perishables. There’s a huge list of the things that you can donate, food wise, to our pantry on Catonsville, help.org however, the biggest help that we can actually receive from the public is monetary donations. Monetary donations allow us to spend that money however we need to spend it in order to keep our organization up and running. So if you give us $200 worth of food, that’s fantastic, but we actually have ways where we could take that $200 make it go even further. And if we had enough food that particular week, we could use that $200 to keep our lights on. So you have to think about it, when you’re donating, what’s the most important thing for the organization that you’re donating to? And I can absolutely say right now, unfortunately, it is public donations well, and
Nestor Aparicio 11:14
also where the money goes right. I mean, everybody that wants to donate money wants to make sure that that it’s going where it’s supposed to go, right? And I, I think trusted organizations and organizations that are working with the food bank I talk so much to, you know, I had Matt Gallagher on a couple months ago back gold sector and different funds and and resources that are available in the community. You know, the pre qualifications of making sure you’re doing the right thing by the people are there for people that they have confidence when they you know that they donate, that this is they don’t just say I wrote a check, that they can see that in action, right? And
8Caitlyn Kirby 11:49
I think that’s why a lot of times people do want to give food, because they know that that food is actually going to go into the mouths of the people that we feed. However, I can guarantee that the monetary donations that come in for us are all going to pay my salary. For instance, I run the organization. I’m the only full time employee there. I have two part time staff, and the rest of us are all volunteer.
Nestor Aparicio 12:09
Kind of weird day today, while we’re here at State Fair, just and it’s a cup of Super Bowl, by the way. Thank you Maryland lottery. Thank you wise markets. And I know wise markets helps all sorts of things at the Maryland food bank, but the weather’s a little sticky today, and I lost two guests, I think, including Evan, who runs the joint, because schools were
Caitlyn Kirby 12:27
closed. Well, my kids are home by themselves right now, luckily.
Nestor Aparicio 12:31
So you have this going on. I lost to get, you know, so all this happens. And then there’s also the fact that when it’s icy out, employees getting open, if there were deliveries today, if someone’s day was today to come and get food, you weren’t open, right? I mean, so there’s also you don’t have unlimited research. No organization does not even Amazon, though you’re contributing to them, I’m sure, but, but the unlimited organizational fundage is not there, even on a day like today, that tomorrow you’ll probably have twice as many people, right? Maybe,
Caitlyn Kirby 13:03
yes. So actually, my morning started at 7am with me not having to get my kids up because they were out of school. But I didn’t know they were completely out of school because Baltimore County didn’t cancel until 830 so what ended up happening was I went to the to my facility, and I actually de iced several ramps myself to make sure that they were safe, for employees to come in and to make sure that they were safe
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
on the record, my wife did my car. My wife, I was really my wife said, 20 minutes the car looked like it was Mr. Freeze blue on it. And, you know, she came in and she was, she was doing it all, and I’m trying to get showered and shaved. How do I look? I look, Alright, great. Well, I’m shaved because she did the car. So she did the car. She’s, like, it was fun. It sounded like glass breaking. It was and she’s from New Hampshire, so, like, they just get snow, you know? I’m, like, I saw my car here’s, like, I had a lot more of that than I had snow probably, you know, for 20 years, right? But, um, yeah, it was, it was something. It
Speaker 1 14:00
was something this morning. Somebody’s got to do that. And guess who did it this morning? I did you
Caitlyn Kirby 14:05
me. Wait, hold on. I did my own car and I did that. No, but the point is, is that actually we ended up being closed today, because Baltimore County schools actually did end up closing, because it really was very, very, very icy out there. But one of my employees, my part time employees, did come in and have to reschedule all of the people that we were serving today, and those are people who need food. So we try to squeeze them in as soon as we can, to make sure that they have what they need in the next
Nestor Aparicio 14:30
week. I’m gonna throw myself on as I see you off. Watch you smile. I had to postpone Tuesday’s show at fatally, so we’re gonna make that right. I have a couple of guests that are actually Jessica Norman’s coming out to talk. About, I love Jessica. Incredible. Good work, folks who are blind. Man, there’s nothing more inspirational than that. For me, when I see someone blind navigating the world, I’m like, Can I do you know? I mean, look at that, right? So she’s coming out Friday, and on Tuesday, we were faced. Leads, or allegedly, we were going to be at fadea leads. We were not a fade Lee, sadly, but I say this, we’re going to make it right. I’ll get back down there. But we had a snafu. I came home from Costas on Monday night. Great guests over there, Soup for the Soul stopped by and Anne’s toy closet and Essex doing great stuff for my city, another group feeding people over here on the west side and Woodlawn fresh food. Great, great guest. We talked about his island in Trinidad, and all he’s doing. So I took my computer home, and all my equipment, I have a couple of bags, and I’m a backpack, this backpack right here, my computer. Put it all up so people can enjoy it out on the radio, damn 1570 they can watch it on YouTube. They can listen to it on the podcast audio. They can watch it on the blog and bring it all in. And my wife is an executive of Verizon, so this is a plug for Sunday Verizon. So a huge Super Bowl party. We’re gonna be down there for that Jamal Lewis, the whole deal, the big game. So I’ve been in the stadium since they threw me out three years ago. So I’ll be down there on Sunday. It’s free ticket. Come on by. So there’s my Verizon plug. Verizon had an all in regional meeting, and my wife’s like a big wig, and she had to get in the car and go and look nice, like Kate looks over there, and get ready. And I left my two things in the trunk, all my equipment in the trunk. We have, we’re one car family, and at seven in the morning, she went off to Silver Spring, and at 10 o’clock I woke up and I’m like, Ah, it feels good. I’m not going to shave because it’s fadelies, and they don’t. They don’t need me to shave there. It’s not like Caitlyn here. So it’s 1015 my son was coming over to pick me up. We’re gonna have a dad boys day together and a fates crab cake at the all new Lexington market. And at 1015 I was literally putting my belt on and getting nice and getting right, and I’m sticking my stuff in the bag. And I looked down, and I’m like, you see that box over there? That box was in Silver Spring, and my car was in Silver Spring, and I was in Towson. And faithless is in Baltimore, and my kid was in Perry Hall on the way over. And I’m like, it’s not, it’s just not gonna happen today. So I just want to apologize to everybody out there, because people were I had clients, friends hitting me. It was such a dumb thing that I didn’t want to tell anybody. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I put up on Tuesday. I’m like, we’ve had to postpone and I had a really dear, dear friend of mine die on in the overnight Monday. So I woke up Tuesday to a awful death of a friend of mine. And people thought that had something to do with Mike Schilling, who passed away, and it didn’t. And Mike smiling from above, snickering at me somewhere, probably watching the shining in 4d or 5d or whatever he’s doing on the other side of the you know, such a great guy. But so people thought it was about his death, or they thought something happened. And I’m like, No, it was just a snafu. And if I tell you how stupid I was, you’re gonna make fun of me, and I’m not ready for that till the weekend, you know. So now that I’ve admitted it, there you have. You done anything that stupid lately? Honestly, don’t if you don’t want to admit
18:01
it, I Why would I expose
Nestor Aparicio 18:06
myself yesterday that I took a flight, I admitted this to her sick. I took a flight last year without my wife, out of the country, and she at the car. Was leaving the car at the airport while she went away to her with her family, and left the car for me and the car keys, and I put my car keys when I left my vacation in the checked bag. The check bag never came. I was at BWI at midnight on a Friday night on an 85 degree night with my car keys locked in my suitcase somewhere at Midway Airport in Chicago.
Caitlyn Kirby 18:40
Well, okay, I do have a I do have a story about that. So I have three children, like I said, where they’re in public school, and one of my sons plays basketball for Arbutus middle so I running in trying to get the other two situated, what they need to do after work. Blah, blah, blah. Imagine three kids. I know it’s a lot,
Nestor Aparicio 18:59
and running Catonsville emergency assistance.
Caitlyn Kirby 19:00
So I jump in the car and I’m halfway around the beltway to go to his away game in Pikesville, or somewhere like that Parkville, somewhere like that exotic. And I excited. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 19:11
when you travel, it’s exotic. It is man. We went to overly it was a big deal. There
Caitlyn Kirby 19:15
you go. Well, I get halfway around the beltway and realize that my keys are actually not in my car, which means that if I stop my car, nothing, I’m gonna be stranded, right? So I have to turn around on the beltway drive all the way back in five o’clock traffic. Of course, I miss most of the game and I got my keys. So that’s the dumbest
Nestor Aparicio 19:35
thing I did, literally, not too bad. As bad as being at the airport knowing your bag didn’t make it. It’s midnight, your wife’s not home, the car is in the parking ride. You don’t have a key for it. Then you read, then you order the Uber and say, I’m just gonna get an Uber and go home. That’s what. I didn’t have a key to get my house, so I had to take the Uber to. Undock and beat on my kid’s door at one o’clock in the morning because he doesn’t answer text. He shows up like, Dude at the door, hair out, chest out, look like and I’m like, he said, What are you doing here? I’m like, dude, just give me your car. Just give me your Give me keys to my house. Sleep at his house. He gave me the key. He gave me the keys to his wife’s car. And I hadn’t eaten in 14 hours, and I’m gonna admit something here at State Fair that I have it was an inside joke with my wife and I, and this is no disrespect to Taco Bell. Okay? Because Taco Bell, another Taco Bell, right? I mean, it’s fine. They never sponsor me, but that’s okay. God bless you. Pepsi, sponsored me. So thank you, Pepsi, for what all you did 20 years ago, we see all these Taco Bell commercials with who’s the comedian that nobody like Pete, whatever his name was, and the breakfast burrito, all that stuff, right? And every time I see it, yo quiero, it’s on every baseball game, my wife and I were like, we’ve been married 18 years. You’ve never had Taco Bell. You want to have it? Maybe we’ll do that next week. We’re going to El Guapo because it’s better. And we never went to so it became like this big joke that one, because we like Taco Bell, we don’t hate it, we just never eat it, right? We’re like, one night, we’re just gonna go to Taco Bell. And I figured one day I’ll be stuck in an airport and order it, or whatever. I used to get a taco every day in my life at Taco Bell, before I did my radio show 30 years ago, because it was one right in front of my studio. Hadn’t been to Taco Bell in our marriage, so since marriage. So since February 8, by the way, happy anniversary. 2003 so 22 years, and it was 145 in the morning, and I was starving, and I had to, I went up on the internet and said, Who, who can feed me 131 somebody’s like, oh, man, it’s this great place called rosarios out in overly Rosedale. I’m like, I don’t want anything fancy. I swear to God, I hit the Taco Bell Bel Air road right outside the Beltway, 215 in the morning, spent 12 bucks. That’s a lot of Taco Bell. You do that? That is a lot of talk about, yeah. So I had Taco Bell that night. So that’s, you know, that’s my
Caitlyn Kirby 21:58
plug for them. Well, my kids love Taco Bell. So Catonsville
Nestor Aparicio 22:01
emergency assistant. She does great stuff. Caitlin curb, she’s my new friend. Thank you going Oreo games this year. I hope so. All right,
Caitlyn Kirby 22:09
I would love to magic
Nestor Aparicio 22:10
happens. Bad days like this get me ready for baseball. So it’s a cup of Super Bowl. Cold Days lead to warm soup. Folks like Caitlin are helping feed people, and it’s important, if you’re out in the Catonsville area you want to give please stop by any of our shows. The third Friday will be Cooper’s, and then next Wednesday, we’re going to be at libs grill and Bel Air. Looking forward to that. Harford County Executive Bob Cassidy will be my guest. Also. We’re going to be back at fait le two weeks, because I was stupid and locked all my equipment in the car. So I brought to you by our friends at the mayor our friends at the Maryland lottery match gate ball. Give them the number, give them the email, tell them how to find you if they want to do nice things here in Catonsville, for people who need it, and you make sure that it winds up with the right people when they give it to
Caitlyn Kirby 22:53
you. Okay, well, we are Catonsville emergency assistance. We are located at 25 Bloomsbury Avenue in Catonsville. We have been the food pantry locally for 40 years. If you would like to donate to us, the best way to do that is to go to our website, which is Catonsville help.org and all the funds that come in to us are actually distributed to those who are in need of food, eviction or utility assistance here in 21228,
Nestor Aparicio 23:22
I’m glad you came back. Let me add some chicken and waffles with Caitlin french fries. Well, here’s the deal, man, I I’ve been talking so much I haven’t had chance to eat this week. I got on a scale early in a week, and I was really skinny. I’ve been working out a lot, doing a lot of hot yoga. So I’m this week was meant to fatten me up, but I’ve been doing so much talking that I haven’t done as much eating. So it’s time, you know, I’m State Fair. I made some room for some chicken waffles over here to get that in. Me, Friday would be Cooper’s. I’m gonna have the best gumbo on Earth, really, at Cooper’s north on Friday to celebrate the Super Bowl that we’re not in, but to celebrate the Super Bowl we were in, Joe Flacco was here this week for an hour, actually was listening in the car on the way in. So you can check that out at a Baltimore positive. As well as my dude, Jamal Lewis, who brought the rock back on Super Bowl 35 he will be joining me, as well as the Verizon folks on Sunday down at the Super Bowl. Cup of Super Bowl and our crab cake tour, all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Have the magic eight ball. I’ve been rubbing this for good luck. We’ve been giving these out. I did have a $20 winner at Coco’s on Wednesday, so I was very pleased about that. I’m still looking for my $100 winner and the top prize of $8,888 because it’s the magic eight ball, right? I mean, what else we wouldn’t be $7,777 that would be the lucky sevens. I am Nestor. We’re in Catonsville. Kate’s going to come up here and we’re going to talk about networking accelerant, leukemia, lymphoma, giving visionary, right? Something like that. She’s laughing at me. Back for more. Stay fair. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive. You.
