Tina Baylor chuckled to herself as she waited in a long, snaking line at a food pantry Saturday at the Sollers Point Multi-purpose Center.

“I called my son-in-law to buy me some food, and he said, ‘You know I can’t buy you anything. I don’t even have any food for myself,” the Turner Station resident said, finding levity in the thought of hauling back a family’s worth of goods in one bag.

Her son-in-law, Donald Brandon, used to transport goods from ships at the Port of Baltimore. He was one of the estimated 15,000 people whose job was affected after the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge shut down the state’s vital shipping hub. And he’s one of many port workers still without a job despite federal and state authorities’ restoration last month of the port’s main channel.

Organizers handing out cans and fresh produce at the farmers market-style distribution event — set up specifically to reach port workers — said they’re still seeing former employees struggling to feed their families.

When the port shut down in April and May, demand for food at Baltimore pantries rose 30% compared to last year, according to Carmen Del Guercio, president of the Maryland Food Bank. The need remained high through early June, based on early data showing the added amount of orders cast each month by the organizers stocking food pantries, he said. The neighborhoods impacted span from Essex to Cherry Hill to Dundalk, where a large number of port workers live.

“It’s been very hard to pay for food and just to take care of my family,” said Brandon, whose job was contracted up north after the bridge collapse as companies began maneuvering goods around the barricaded port.

“Our partners are telling us they’re seeing a lot of new faces,” Del Guercio said. He believes the change is linked to a mix of inflation and the unemployment caused by the port’s shuttering. But the pace of food insecurity has surprised him.

The day after the bridge fell, pantries noticed an immediate rise in demand, and the need remained constant for months. That’s unusual, Del Guercio said; organizers normally see a much slower spike that then peters out. It’s hard to gauge how much of that evolved from a fear over these jobs being gone forever versus these families not having readily accessible food or other streams of income to pull from.

“It’s usually weeks to a month of families saying, ‘OK, I’m going to figure this thing out’ before having to go to a food bank,” he said.

As a program manager for the Community Assistance Network, Carla Schroyer helped port workers find resources in the aftermath of the collapse. She collected diapers and showed them how to apply for supplemental payment through Maryland’s PORT Act, which provides income replacement for displaced workers and aid to contractors working around the port.

“These workers are not your usual at a pantry,” Schroyer said, her hands blackened as she passed out boxes at a Dundalk distribution event. “They’re coming from specialized jobs, where many of them had to train over years. They’re not the people you’d think of as typically in need.”

For longshoremen, pay can be more than $1,000 per week, according to a previous Banner report. But many went on unemployment, during which they collected $430 a week, and those who continued to work for the port in some capacity despite the shuttering took up to a 75% pay cut, said Scott Cowan, president of the Local 333, a union for longshoremen.

Cowan did not respond to questions related to the returning workforce.

Venetia Barbee, who was in line for food Saturday on Sollers Point Road, said her nephew had to give up on returning to the port while waiting for aid from the Port Act. He loved his job, she said. Born and raised only a few miles from the Dundalk Marine Terminal, he drove a truck and transported goods around the area. Now he’s using his commercial driver’s license to haul mulch in Rosedale.

“It’s very different,” she said. “But you do odd jobs to get things met like lights and food.”

Michael Thompson, who helped organize the drive and handed out produce, said he’s heard some workers had their jobs moved to other areas to handle the rerouting of shipments. He’s not surprised people remain out of work.

“A lot of folks got called back, but you can’t turn it on a dime,” he said. “Yes, [the port’s] open, but that doesn’t mean X number of jobs are going to happen next week.”

His Turner Station Conservation Team hauled 20 pallets of food to the event Saturday, when even the less popular bags of cabbage were cleared away. “This was the largest turnout we’ve had,” he said. “That line went down the block.”

The Maryland Food Bank has 11 groups distributing food that are in need of volunteers and donations to attend to the heightened demand in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and more broadly in Anne Arundel County. Translating services are also needed. Information is available on the organization’s website.