This report lays out a range of strategies that can help address Baltimore’s urgent need to do more to create new opportunities for the city’s large population of disconnected youth. 

This report explores food procurement processes in state and private higher educational institutions in Baltimore and identifies a range of strategies to more fully realize local purchasing power. The report recommends actions to support local minority business enterprises and small businesses, modifications to procurement processes, and outlines legislative opportunities to connect state agency and institutional purchasing power to businesses in targeted reinvestment areas. Many of the recommendations are applicable not just to food but other services and commodities as well.