Eating a plant-based diet is not only good for human health, but also for planetary health. According to a study at the University of Oxford published in Science, eating a vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on earth. Researchers at Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73 percent. In addition to carbon, by reducing our animal-based food consumption, we greatly reduce our usage of fresh water and land needed for agriculture.

Here are a few of the benefits of eating food that has been locally grown: 

• Local food supports the local economy, reinvesting money in your community.
• Local food benefits the environment by helping to maintain farmland and green space within your community, as well as cutting down on carbon emissions from transportation.
• Local growers can tell you how exactly the food was grown (planting, raising, harvesting).
• Local food is full of flavor and nutrients because of the shorter time period between harvest and your table.

For more information, please visit the website for Homegrown Baltimore, the city government’s urban agriculture program encouraging Baltimore residents to grow local, buy local, and eat local.

Looking to support local catering vendors? Visit our Make Your Next Event Low-Waste page to access our Green Eats vendor list and interactive map.

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) Farmers Market, located at University Park Plaza on the corner of Paca and Baltimore streets, is held every Tuesday, June through November, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Stop by to purchase fresh produce, sweet treats, prepared meals, and more! The kickoff for the 2024 season will take place June 4.

For information on using SNAP benefits at the market, visit the UMMC website.

Below is a list of vendors for the 2024 season:

Food insecurity has become a growing concern for students on many campuses. The Food Security Project at UMB is a program to support students who might be experiencing food insecurity.

UMB conducted a student survey in fall 2018 to determine if there was a need for a student food pantry or other resources on campus to assist in addressing any food insecurity that may exist among the student population. Check the  Food Security Infographic  to view some of the findings from the survey.  

For more information and resources regarding food security on campus, please visit the UMB Student Affairs website. You can learn more about the UMB Student Pantry here. You also can learn about our food recovery initiative UMB FREE, which connects students to leftover food from events. 

The Department of Planning and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future collaborate to examine the Baltimore food environment through research, analysis, and mapping to inform the work of the city’s Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI).

BFPI is a collaboration among the Department of Planning, Office of Sustainability, Baltimore City Health Department, and Baltimore Development Corporation that draws on the expertise of each to use food as a lens to examine and address the systems that perpetuate food environment disparities.

The city brief provides a snapshot of the impact of Healthy Food Priority Areas and an analysis of food retail, nutrition assistance, and urban agriculture from a citywide perspective. For the most recent food environment briefs, visit the Baltimore City Department of Planning’s website.