Website: https://blackyieldinstitute.org/
Email: Info@BlackYieldInstitute.org
About Our Farm
There is a significant need for fresh, healthy food across Baltimore. 20% of Baltimore City residents live in a food desert, defined as an area with low availability of healthy food, lack of access to transportation, and a significant distance from a supermarket. The Cherry Hill neighborhood is located in a food desert, and one long-time neighborhood resident was tired of seeing her community suffer from the health consequences of low healthy food access.
Inspired to find a solution, 73-year old Juanita Ewell decided to start a garden. Her driving goal has always been, as she says, “to save the community.” In 2010, she secured a 1.5 acre site on unused City property to provide fresh produce to neighborhood residents and to teach the community to “Eat Health Live Healthy.” By converting an abandoned lot into growing space, she took a huge step toward transforming Cherry Hill’s food environment.
A committed team of volunteer farm managers have contributed to the garden over the years by sharing their experience growing organic food. The growing space has expanded from four raised beds to 24 raised beds, 16 50-foot rows, 1 high tunnel, 5 mobility boxes, and a sensory herb garden.
Juanita passed away in February 2015, and the Cherry Hill Urban Garden continues on in her memory. A committed team of volunteers, continue to provide food, education, and hands-on volunteer experience to the Cherry Hill community.
Founding Member Profile: Juanita Ewell
Juanita was a Cherry Hill native, Cherry Hill Development Corporation Board Member, grandmother and avid home gardener whose dream for the community in 2010 started the Cherry Hill Urban Garden. She was very interested in eating and living healthy, community service, and the food security movement in Cherry Hill.
Farmer Profile:
Information to come…
Volunteer With Us!
Our farm is in transition and we do not have volunteer opportunities at this time
Other Programming
In 2015, the Garden is partnering with Growing Resources After Sowing Seeds (GRASS), a youth and young adult entrepreneurial workforce development non-profit program based on the fundamentals of gardening, agriculture and ecology. We are also providing produce for cooking classes at St. Veronica’s Church in Cherry Hill.
