The panel marks the kickoff of a collaboration between the GSA and Pigtown Food for Thought. Panelists will discuss issues of community engagement and food justice.

Meet Your Panelists:

Toma Solano is a Baltimore native and Pigtown resident whose interest in gardening and concern for food justice prompted him to help start Pigtown Food for Thought. He teaches carpentry and other useful life skills at the Chesapeake Center for Youth Development.

Eric Jacksonis a Baltimore native and organizer working with Pigtown Food for Thought. He is the Community Health Organizer for the Baltimore City Health Department’s Baltimarket, where he runs the Neighborhood Food Advocates Initiative, organizing and developing leadership to achieve food security and justice.

Jessica McNeely is a UMBC graduate student in Psychology who will be participating in the GSA/Pigtown Food for Thought project. She is interested in connecting her academic study with her interest in food justice. 

Jill Wrigley lives with her husband and three children in the Irvington neighborhood of Baltimore, where she works on neighborhood food issues. She served as an Open Society Institute Fellow in 2010, working on the food program at Baltimore Montessori Public Charter Elementary and with Great Kids farm. She previously worked as a workers' rights attorney and currently teaches a course on food in the Interdisciplinary Studies program at UMBC.