Toiletries, boxes of Hamburger Helper, beef stew cans, books, face masks, and Narcan might not be what one would expect to see inside of a newspaper box. But the new distribution stands for the city’s Black-led, bi-weekly nonprofit newspaper, the Baltimore Beat, encourage locals to take what they need and drop off what they can.
Last month, the aptly named Beat Boxes began cropping up all over the city. They’re currently stationed at 11 sites (and counting) including Dovecote Cafe in Reservoir Hill, The Arch Social Club in Penn North, Avenue Market in Upton, The Real News Network downtown, and the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown.
Editor-in-chief Lisa Snowden-McCray—who co-founded the Beat with former City Paper colleague Brandon Soderberg in 2018—says the vision for the community exchange-focused Beat Boxes came from Soderberg last year, around the time their staff was…
