An Environmental Science & Policy alum, Kerrin Massarueh ’19 is like a force of nature for greater good, and her excitement is palpable as she describes the passion she feels through mentoring and her work at BMoreAg, a Baltimore organization committed to revitalizing the city through urban agriculture, supporting urban farmers, and addressing food security for all residents.
“I was excited when I started at BMoreAg because this is what I essentially went to school for,” said Massarueh. “I was taught to be a thinker when it comes to sustainability and resilience in agriculture. And a major aspect of my job is building partnerships and creating collaborations through community outreach with city schools and local groups.”
In her two years with the organization, she has taken on three different roles, from community farm coordinator to greenhouse manager to her current position as the director of government and community relations.
She has thrived at working with local schools to educate students about the importance of agriculture and food security. She worked with Green Street Academy, a West Baltimore charter school in their development of an on-site indoor hydroponic facility where students can grow food. The project delivered valuable skills to students including entrepreneurship, food safety, community building, engineering, and technology along with farming essentials like harvesting and planting. The students ultimately donated over 3,000 pounds of produce through Real Food Farms, to provide for communities in need.
“Showing how a school can make kids excited about agriculture demonstrates we can push for sustainability practices and provide food for communities across the world,” said Massarueh. “I’m from the Caribbean and traveled around the world and noticed what’s going on here in Baltimore is really not all that different from what’s happening across the globe. I think youth is a big way to push the importance of agriculture and community resiliency. By empowering the youth, we’re empowering our future.”
Massarueh’s community focused work hasn’t been exclusive to Baltimore and the state of Maryland. In Summer 2022, she joined Roots Africa as a mentor for the nonprofit started by fellow AGNR alum Cedric Nwafor ’17, to help farmers in Africa learn how to effectively increase their yields and provide for their communities. Through the program, she was able to travel to Kenya and Uganda and the experience left a profound mark on her, which she says “I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
It’s evident that her Roots Africa experience and working with young students in Baltimore has provided a very clear picture for her path as an active citizen. As a way to pay it forward, she has also mentored future leaders through nonprofit organizations, the Ecological Society of America, and Innovate My World.
“Anyone who is working in food security or agriculture, should really have experiences like mentoring to see what resilience really looks like,” says Massarueh. “As an Afro-Caribbean woman in the space of agriculture, it’s really important for me to see other BIPOC women. It drives me to do better to provide space for women who look like me. Meeting some of the women in Uganda, makes me think back to why I even got involved in agriculture. I’ve been able to take this energy back with me to Baltimore and put it into the work I do here. Sometimes it simply takes believing that you can make an impact and doing it.”
by Andrew Muir : Momentum Winter 2023
