ALUMNI ON THE FRONTLINES - Beth Fenwick Garner ’85

Beth Fenwick Garner ’85 is the Director of Corporate Relations at Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC). She is also the founder and creator of the app BaltoBites, which lists restaurants that are currently open in Baltimore.

The inspiration for BaltoBites came from the GBMC Healthcare Workers’ Fund, which provides food, among other things, to healthcare workers on the frontlines. “This app lets those wanting to provide food to healthcare workers with a way to know which restaurants are still open and where they can go to support the community.”

Ms. Garner subscribes to the market research group, Trends, based in San Francisco. In one of their reports, they wrote about the idea to use no-code tools to create a directory app in local cities to provide information around local restaurants still open for business during the COVID-19 shutdown. Trends’ members even provided the playbook on how to build the app. “In the beginning, I reminded myself to focus on progress and not perfection.” The fact that BaltoBites is a no-code app made it feel accessible. “I wanted to expand my skill set and serve the community, connecting families who are in a position to still order out with small restaurants that are open.”

What initially began with 30 restaurants now includes 250. Ms. Garner credits a local food blogger, who had information for all 250 restaurants on a spreadsheet and generously shared it with the app. From there, it took off. “If I have the room and time to take it to the next level, I can see us creating promotions to encourage people to get out there and frequent these restaurants. That said, I’m kind of hoping it has zero impact and is just something we use during COVID-19 that serves the community. I would encourage anyone to have a go with the user-friendly https://baltobites.glideapp.io.”