Most Highlandtown residents do not live in a food desert, otherwise known as a healthy food priority area, where access to food and other basic necessities are stifled, according to Baltimore’s latest Department of Planning data.

So why is the neighborhood’s library branch opening a grocery store where everything — from fresh produce and cereal boxes to tampons and baby wipes — is free of charge?

The Pratt Free Market, set to open for the first time Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is a pilot project aimed at addressing citywide barriers to food access by offering residents groceries at no cost. Anyone passing by is able to drop in and fill up a bag. It’s not necessarily a new concept: Libraries across the country have installed community fridges and pantries to increase food access. But Lu Bangura, who championed the concept at Enoch Pratt’s Southeast Anchor Branch, believes this is a first step toward positioning Baltimore’s public libraries at the front lines of the city’s food insecurity crisis.

“I didn’t want to do it if it looked like a pantry,” she said. “I wanted it to look like a store you’d find in an airport.”

Bangura, chief of equity and fair practices for Enoch Pratt, described the free market as a place where both a mother of five and a struggling college student can shop without judgement. She noted the stigma surrounding food distributions can prevent people from seeking help, and opted to create a space storing a variety of goods with a sleek design. Red shelves stocked with at least three rows of canned and packaged goods will be bundled with fresh produce from urban farms including Plantation Park Heights, Moon Valley and the Black Butterfly.

Children are the most likely age group to live in a food desert within the district, according to city data last updated in 2018, and more than a quarter of residents in the area do not have a car. It’s part of the reason why the busy corner across from the library on 3601 Eastern Ave. — with two bus stops and neighboring corner shops — is expected to be an easily accessible spot.

Their last few Pantry on the Go locations set up outside the library served up to 600 people. The new market anticipates serving up to 2,800 each month on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Fridays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., according to Bangura.

The free market also makes use of space left available after the library’s David and Dad’s Cafe shuttered. A $250,000 anonymous donation was used to convert the grocery store, so no taxpayer money was used. Starting Saturday, anyone can volunteer to help operate the shop and donate either money or food.

Hygiene products from a Black-owned Baltimore company, Femly, will also be found on shelves. Near the refrigerators will be a dispenser filled with organic tampons — a commodity Bangura said is in high demand based on previous community giveaways — and on the other side of the room sits rows of laundry detergent and deodorant.

It’s an upgrade from the mini mart in South Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood, which sits in District 10, with Baltimore’s second-highest proportion of residents living in a food desert — a percentage nearly double the citywide average. The library also set up three community fridges last year, located in branches including District 1, where 3% of residents live in a food desert, and in District 7, where 37% of residents live in a food desert, according to city data. Bangura hopes to see the libraries do more with the market’s model and scale services to the city’s 21 other branches. But it’s a work in progress.

They will be operating on “good faith,” she said, advising that people fill one bag of groceries per visit due to limited stock. The offerings will be highly seasonal, as storage space is still being determined and the market remains dependent in its partnership with the Maryland Food Bank and local farms to stay in stock. Benbow Concession Services, a local company selling funnel cakes and other food-related services, plans on hosting cooking classes to teach community members how to make the most of their free groceries.

“We don’t care what you look like or what you have. Anyone can go through a hard time,” Bangura said. “‘Everybody eats’ is our slogan.”