Baltimore corner stores, small grocers and farmers who serve some of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods can now tap into grants of up to $250,000 to stock their shelves with fresh produce and healthy food, under a new law Mayor Brandon Scott signed on Monday. The Community Healthy Food Access Act creates a citywide grant program aimed squarely at Healthy Food Priority Areas, the neighborhoods where fresh groceries are hardest to come by.
According to wbal.com, the legislation provides funding for local stores and farmers to improve access to fresh, nutritious food. Small grocery stores and community food retailers located in Healthy Food Priority Areas that accept SNAP and WIC can receive up to $250,000 to help with equipment and stocking shelves with fresh, healthy foods, while full-size grocery stores can receive up to $100,000. The law also establishes the Healthy Food Priority Area Grant Program itself and codifies the city’s Food Policy and Planning Division into the Department of Planning.
The law’s grants can help corner stores stock produce and healthy food, a direct incentive meant to reach small retailers already embedded in neighborhoods that lack full-service supermarkets. The Baltimore Development Corp. is funding the Healthy Food Priority Area Grant Program to support existing stores and attract new grocery stores into priority areas, per the same account.
Who Qualifies and What Comes With the Money
Grant recipients won’t just receive a check and walk away. Every grant recipient will receive technical assistance and help with business planning, financial management, and SNAP/WIC technology integration, and recipients must host annual community listening sessions that let residents weigh in on pricing, product selection and store services. The program also prioritizes minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, worker-owned cooperatives, community-based enterprises, and retailers offering culturally relevant food or non-traditional hours.
A Faith-Based Push to Deliver Food Directly
The Black Church Food Security Network will have access to funds to work with churches and farmers to deliver fresh food to communities in need, with plans to hire staff, organize and train congregations, and connect farmers with churches and faith-based organizations.
A Healthy Food Priority Area is a neighborhood that lacks easy access to fresh, healthy foods. An earlier 2018 estimate from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future put the share of Baltimore residents living in such areas at about 23.5%, with Black residents then the racial group most likely to live in one at 31.5%.
Food Insecurity Runs Deep Among SNAP Households
Research from the 21st Century Cities Initiative found that about two-thirds of Baltimore-area SNAP recipients were food insecure in a 2024 survey, compared with less than 20% of residents who did not receive SNAP, and nearly half of SNAP recipients reported very low food security. The same research found that three in 10 Baltimore City residents received SNAP benefits, compared with one in 10 Baltimore County residents.
Baltimore has tried smaller-scale fixes before. POLITICO reported that Loyola University’s FreshCrate program used its food-service company to sell produce at cost through five small stores on York Road, generating $30,000 in produce sales through a coupon program. The outlet noted that the city’s first round of grant funding at the time was expected to include a grant to FreshCrate, an early example of the kind of public support now being scaled up citywide under the new law.
The Community Healthy Food Access Act does not yet come with a published application process, and city leaders have not detailed how many grants will ultimately be awarded. For now, the law’s promise rests on how funding is distributed among stores, farmers and faith groups.
