Remarkably, Moveable Feast is the only such meal delivery program in the eastern part of the state of Maryland that provides medically nutritious meals to clients completely free-of-charge. Living in poverty and often utterly alone, the clients of Moveable Feast often have no one else to depend upon. They are frequently unable to feed themselves—both physically and financially—much less fulfill the nutritional demands of their diseases and maintain quality of life.

Last year, Moveable Feast delivered over 534,000 nutritious meals, five days a week, straight to the doorstep of 948 clients living as near as Baltimore City to as far as the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In addition, through partnerships with Baltimore community agencies, Moveable Feast served an additional 204,000 meals to over a thousand Marylanders who are chronically homeless. Over the course of the year, their drivers traversed 75,826 miles—or more than three times the circumference of the planet—in delivering a grand total of 739,123 meals.

Yet Moveable Feast does far more than deliver hundreds of thousands of meals each year. In 1997, the People on the Move program was founded to provide transportation to clients—often homeless—to and from medical appointments and social service agencies. In 2003, Moveable Feast added its innovative Culinary Arts and Life Training Skills program, which equipped graduates to enter the work force at a higher than entry-level position. And in 2010, Moveable Feast partnered with There Goes My Hero Foundation to begin providing meals to patients with leukemia.

Moveable Feast services span a distance of hundreds of thousands of square miles, achievable through fundraisers, grants, and generous donations. The need for Moveable Feast services continues to grow. Across the nation, Maryland ranks 21st for population size, but 4th among US states for new HIV infections per capita. Fifty-nine percent of HIV-positive Marylanders live in the Baltimore-Towson Metropolitan area. And breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the state of Maryland, which ranks eighth in the nation for breast cancer mortality.

Over the past two decades, Moveable Feast has become the largest free home delivery meal service in the entire state, propelled by a mission to feed people, fight disease, and foster hope. Yet the organization celebrates not their success, but the success of those they serve. Said Executive Director Thomas Bonderenko, “We celebrate our clients: the thousands of men, women and children who have fought bravely to maintain their quality of life in the face of their suffering, discrimination and needless shame.”