Baltimore Food Hub (BFH) is a food incubator hub in a severely distressed area of East Baltimore. Harbor Bankshares Corporation and the National Community Investment Fund provided nearly $9 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation to finance the creation of the Hub. BFH brings together food entrepreneurs, producers, and retailers. The centralized food market eliminates a food desert and incorporates both teaching and commercial production kitchens. BFH also provides a space for food manufacturing, job training, an urban farming operation and an all-season market. One-third of the Baltimore Food Hub’s sq. ft. is occupied by nonprofits (21%), and minority-owned businesses (14%).
U.S. Bank served as the NMTC equity investor for the project. American Communities Trust ;(ACT), the BFH project sponsor, is a Baltimore-based nonprofit that works through partnerships to create inclusive economic development projects that bring growth and prosperity to low-income residents. Since its founding in 2008, ACT has worked in more than two dozen U.S. cities helping clients engage low-income communities through projects that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars.