Growing Food. Growing Skills. Growing Leaders.
We are proud to announce the launch of the Eastport Community Farm — a one-acre site designed to be a community hub, science lab, maker space, vegetable and fruit production site, and small business incubator in the heart of Annapolis’s 6th Ward.
This farm is not just about growing vegetables.
It is about growing sovereignty, opportunity, and leadership. This project is community-led, built in partnership with neighborhood leaders including Heaven White, Donna Johnson, Alderwoman Diesha Contee, and others who have long invested in the strength and future of Eastport. The direction of this space reflects the vision and energy of our community.
Why Eastport?
Eastport is a food desert. Grocery stores are a three-mile round trip by foot — the same distance as walking to the Governor’s Mansion. Fresh food should not be harder to access than liquor.
The Eastport Community Farm is being built to change that.
This site is planned to produce tens of thousands of servings of fresh vegetables annually for Harbour House, Eastport Terrace, and the wider community. With dedicated vegetable production areas, fruit plantings, and a greenhouse classroom, we are building a neighborhood food system — right where people live.
What We’re Building
The Eastport Community Farm will include:
This is production-oriented. It is designed to grow food and build skills at the same time.
More on the design can be seen in this slideshow.
Real World Skill Building
Real world skill building means carpentry, irrigation, crop planning, food preparation, leadership, and entrepreneurship.
It means practicing math through bed spacing, reading through seed catalogs, and business through product marketing.
We have seen that many young people who struggle to engage in conventional classrooms come alive when learning is hands-on and applied. When they build a bed, install fencing, or lead a planting day, they see their impact immediately.
This is job readiness.
This is confidence building.
This is pride.
Nutrient Dense Food Access
Nutrient dense food allows people to function at their highest potential.
The Eastport Community Farm will grow greens, tomatoes, seasonal vegetables, and fruit — enough to meaningfully supplement neighborhood diets. Fresh vegetable box distribution will begin early in the growing season and continue throughout .
Food grown steps from your door changes health outcomes.
Community Capacity & Enterprise
Community capacity means neighborhoods handling more of their own needs — with tools, knowledge, and infrastructure in place.
It means knowing how to grow food at scale.
It means producing high-quality goods.
It means less dependency and more initiative.
This farm is also a small business incubator. Crops grown on site can become value-added products. Skills learned here can become income streams. In late summer, our Growing Leaders Entrepreneurship Program will support youth in marketing products from the season’s harvest .
This space fosters initiative.
Growing Leaders
The core reason for this project is the avid engagement of neighborhood youth in our existing garden sites — especially Our Garden.
Young people in this community have shown extraordinary dedication to building and stewarding shared spaces. The Eastport Community Farm gives that leadership room to scale.
Through STEAM programming, the Growing Leaders Cohort, and farmer certificate courses, this site becomes a pipeline for long-term community leadership.
Vegetables are the vehicle.
Leadership is the outcome.
On the CNI Redevelopment Question
Does it make sense to invest in this farm when the land may be re-allocated as soon as 2028?
From us, this is a strong yes.
Two to three growing seasons is the perfect pilot window. We will refine methods, techniques, and technologies that can be replicated across Annapolis. Much of the infrastructure — greenhouse systems, fencing, irrigation — is transferable .
This project is not temporary.
It is catalytic.
The Eastport Community Farm marks the beginning of neighborhood-scale food systems across the city.
We are building more than a farm. We are building a model — and growing the leaders who will carry it forward. 
Join us Saturday 2/21/2026 for more information.
Save the date 5/2/2026 for our ribbon cutting!
