Baltimore dinner club marks first anniversary with local food and community ties

A Baltimore dinner club built around local farmers markets marked its first anniversary by asking members to write birthday cards for senior centers and sending leftovers to the Baltimore Community Fridge Network.

What started as a kitchen-table idea from Charlie Urrutia and Erica Choi has become a twice-a-month gathering that brings strangers back to the same tables, often in Canton and sometimes at neighborhood partner spaces. Members pay $10, buy ingredients from city farmers markets, cook a dish and bring it to share, a simple format that has produced repeat business for local growers while giving Baltimore residents an easy, low-pressure place to connect.

The food has stayed central. Recent spreads have included lamb curry, coconut cake and crispy potatoes, and the group has built in special themes, from Pi Day to birthdays, to keep the nights from feeling like a one-off potluck. One of the most memorable gatherings was a meatless Thanksgiving feast with Red Emma’s, a sign that the supper club has become more structured, and more rooted in local partnerships, than a casual dinner series.

That structure matters in a city where access to food is uneven and expensive. Baltimore’s Office of Sustainability says the city has 20 farmers markets, and 7 accept SNAP benefits. More than 192,000 Baltimore residents receive SNAP benefits each month, and city food-access plans say disparities in affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food reflect segregation, uneven resource distribution and other structural barriers.

Broader city data help explain why a $10 supper club has resonated. Johns Hopkins University’s 21st Century Cities Initiative says about three in 10 Baltimore City residents receive SNAP benefits, and roughly two-thirds of Baltimore-area SNAP recipients are food insecure. The Maryland Food Bank says 55.8% of Baltimore City families struggle to afford the cost of living.

In that context, the Farmers Market Supper Club functions as more than a social club. It is a small neighborhood economy, one that sends money to farmers market vendors, pulls neighbors into recurring rituals and channels leftovers to people who need them. For Urrutia and Choi, the appeal was never just a dinner table; it was building a community around local businesses, food and agriculture, one shared plate at a time.