2024 Grantees
The Market awarded thirteen $500 grants to local non-profits in 2024, in recognition of their efforts to support children, teenagers, youth, and adults in greater Baltimore with books and gardens, film-making and science experiments, foods and arts and music and stories.
As the Market enters its 45th year, it continues to be a cherished hub, an information exchange, and a meet-up spot, as well as the best place to shop for fresh local produce, artisan products, and well-crafted goods. For more than two decades, the Market has nurtured that sense of community by awarding local non-profit organizations with micro-grants. In 2024, the requirements were updated—all applications and evaluation questionnaires were posted online, and grantees had more social media promotional opportunities as well as efficient onsite staff support.
Eleven of the grantees presented their programs at the Market in 2024. Among them, Reading Partners noted the richly diverse audience of people from the Baltimore area and that many families learned about its tutoring services at the Market. The Charles Village Garden Walk organizers appreciated the helpfulness of the Market staff, clear communication, use of pop-up and table, and prime location to engage Market goers.
While a rainy Saturday reduced its total number of giveaways, the Book Thing loved that a Market vendor adopted 137 books to stock a Little Free Library in Sandtown. Story Seeds and memoir author Megan Lovely remarked that ‘community members were consistently perplexed and delighted that there was nothing being sold at the Story Seeds stands—that it was just a space for story sharing and artmaking.’
‘Making’ figured into several grantees’ programs in 2024. The Baltimore City Engineering Alliance used its funds to purchase materials for its robot-making kits for 400+ STEM students at four City high schools. TasteWise Kids offered ‘taste-buds on’ experiences for eleven City elementary schools, as more than four dozen students worked with chefs and farmers expand their appreciation for locally grown foods. The BIT Center supported its youth through its workforce development program and encouraged crocheters to contribute squares for its annual holiday tree in the Waverly Commons.
Very young children through college-age students benefited from the grants. Children of the World continued its robust early childhood educational environment while providing free English as a second language classes to parents and caregivers. 901 Arts used the funds to underwrite field trips to two local art museums (and a swimming pool) for its summertime youth workers, who were collectively designing and painting a neighborhood wall mural.
Wide Angle Youth Media similarly used its grant funds to fuel a semester’s worth of healthy snacks for 45 Baltimore Speaks Out middle-school students at Baltimore Design School as they created posters, short stop-action films, and records. The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland purchased portable microphones for its teachers and art supplies and books for its young students. (The Museum plans to return to the Market in 2025 for another popular Greek foods demonstration.)
The Maryland State Boychoir provided opportunities for talented boys from all backgrounds to develop their musical and social skills and the Village Learning Place continued its program to provide literacy, cultural awareness, and lifelong learning for all ages.
The Market especially appreciated that its grant to the Charles Village Garden Walk was ‘seed money’—the 100+ participants’ fees contributed to the Walk’s success so much so that it was able to underwrite three separate $500 grants to nearby organizations’ for their gardens.
The number of awardees and amount of the Market’s grants has been determined annually based on funds remaining after expenses. Unfortunately, the difficult decision to reduce discretionary spending in 2025 has led to the suspension of the grant program. The Market is optimistic that under new, careful leadership the program will return in the future.