Hollins Market currently serves some of the most in need neighborhoods in Baltimore and in its absence would expand an ever growing food desert. Six of the seven neighborhoods served by Hollins Market fall within Healthy Food Priority Areas, as designated by the Baltimore Department of Planning and Johns Hopkins University, for having well below average access to healthy food. Options for healthy food that exist fall well below the average for the rest of the city. Hollins Market has always provided a healthy food supply to the neighborhoods, and improvements can drastically improve the food environment in Southwest Baltimore.

One of the elements that makes Hollins Market so unique is that it is the last remaining of Baltimore’s six public markets with a head house. Over the 226 year history of Baltimore’s system of public markets, decisions were made to demolish head houses at four other markets, which served as important community gathering places. The head house at Hollins has survived and is a key architectural feature of the neighborhood and restoration of this landmark is nonnegotiable in the eyes of the Baltimore Public Market’s Corporations Board of Directors. Significant environmental and physical challenges are presented in the structure, which parts of have not been occupied in nearly 30 years, but we intend to renovate the space and return it to its former purpose of being an important congregation site for the neighborhoods that surround the market.