Every Saturday, residents of Cherry Hill and its surrounding areas in south Baltimore gather at their weekly community market. Shoppers stroll through booths to discover a variety of goods sourced from local and Black-owned farms — fruit, vegetables, honey, jelly, jam, loose tea, and even vegan treats such as ice cream and cookies fill baskets and tote bags. For this community, Cherry Hill Marketplace is the best bet for some residents to obtain healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods.
And this market wouldn’t be possible without the efforts of Black Yield Institute.
Black Yield Institute is a Pan-African nonprofit focused on Black land and food sovereignty. Their office and year-round weekly market are located in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, an area that hasn’t had a full-service grocery store in more than two decades.
They work to achieve food sovereignty and eradicate food apartheid through a variety of ways, with a large emphasis on community. In addition to offering locally sourced fresh produce every week at Cherry Hill Marketplace, they also host a Mutual Aid Market, where community members can exchange goods and services for fresh produce, once a month. They strive to host a community-owned and -operated food co-op, the Cherry Hill Food Co-op, that will support local farmers and businesses while allowing community members to make democratic decisions about the items offered at the grocery store. Even their office is located within the locker-covered hallways of a converted elementary school, nestled between other local nonprofits.
“Cherry Hill used to have a really bad reputation — it still does to some people,” said Jordan Taylor, Communications Organizer and Archivist for Black Yield Institute. “But when you come here it’s all love and respect. There’s people that have been here for generations.”
Established in the 1940s as the site of a federal project for African American war workers, Cherry Hill is still plagued with the burden of Jim Crow-era segregation and stereotypes.
“All these outside forces came into this beautiful community and created a negative perception,” Taylor said.
Black Yield Institute aspires to bring that beauty back to the forefront.
The organization was created in 2015 to work collaboratively with Black people and entities in the pursuit of establishing an action network and serving as an incubator for ideas and projects.
“When you look at the construction of this country, Black people did a lot of the work without getting the proper reparations or credit,” Taylor said.
For Eric Jackson, founder and servant-director, the institute’s work in Cherry Hill is personal.
“Brother Eric is from here, and the reason he wanted to have his work focused here is because he saw the impacts of food apartheid on his grandma and her quality of life,” Taylor said.
According to data from the Baltimore City Health Department, the median household income in Cherry Hill is $22,659, compared with $41,819 in Baltimore city overall. Just over 57 percent of families with children younger than 18 live in poverty.
“We need solutions to food problems in our cities and Black communities that are culturally appropriate and culturally relevant. When you look at the Cherry Hill community, a lot of people have to resort to carryout, fast food, or the Family Dollar. We’re looking for equitable food options that aren’t going to kill you or extract from the community, but also present things that we actually do eat,” Taylor said.
Black Yield Institute invests in Black food research and knowledge creation, hosts the Sankara-Hamar Academy for political education, and advocates to create things like the Cherry Hill Food Co-op for the community.
However, one of the largest pillars of Black Yield Institute was an investment in urban agriculture.
The Cherry Hill Urban Community Garden was a 1.25 acres of land located down the street from the institute’s office. Once thriving with swarming honey bees, plants used to make indigo for dyes, and everything from collard greens to peach trees, the Housing Authority of Baltimore City had no interest in renewing the lease, Taylor said. They ordered an immediate eviction. Although the institute was able to petition to stay on the land through 2021, an additional six months after the lease expired, they had to uproot everything off of their carefully stewarded land to a new property three miles away in Mount Clare.
Over a year after they were forced off the land, the once bountiful lot currently sits completely empty.
Despite their struggles, there is no doubt that Black Yield Institute’s work is making huge progress in pursuit of Black land and food sovereignty.
So, how is Black Yield able to influence so much change in Baltimore? They recognize the power of compound interest.
Just as any self-made millionaire will tell you that the first step to becoming a millionaire is understanding the power of compound returns, Black Yield Institute aims to use this concept to create change in a variety of different ways.
“The big battles are won in all of the little moments. It may have seemed like little gains or small wins, and some of them may have even seemed like losses, but all of that compounding leads to exponential growth,” Taylor said.
“I like when our work is the catalyst to growth beginning.”
Ciara O’Brien is a recent college graduate and freelance writer from Maryland. She enjoys writing about sustainable agriculture, environmental issues, and holistic wellness. Her work has been featured in local, national, and international publications.
