Boone Street Commons is a community built and managed green space in East Baltimore Midway. In 2020 a community garden was added to the space with 6 inaugural gardeners and 12 garden beds growing flowers, vegetables, and fruits. The garden has produced more crops than the gardeners could consume, however they observed theft of crops like corn, tomatoes, and watermelons, likely during the evening or early morning hours. For 2021, we increased the total number of garden beds to 23 and started a group gardening program allowing neighbors to grow crops with the purposeful intention of sharing it with neighbors.

Our Awesome Project is to build a Free Farm Stand; a free-standing structure that resembles roadside farm stands along rural routes across America. Items in the farm stand would be protected from the elements and serve as a mini food pantry in which gardeners may share crops. This would make fresh grown food available to anyone 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The farm stand can act as an emergency food assistance gap-filler: the farm stand is open when traditional providers close; the farm stand can serve those too ashamed to utilize emergency food assistance; or serve those who do not qualify for means-tested assistance. Other Nonperishable items also could be added to the farm stand as part of the service it provides.

Learn more: boonestreetcommons.com and on Facebook/Instagram @boonestreetcommons