logologologologo
  • Home
  • About Us
    • COVID-19 Response
    • Building Blocks
    • Hoen Lithograph Building
    • Employment
    • Staff and Board
  • Programs
    • Adult Learning Center
    • The Club at Collington Square
    • Neighborhood Programs
  • News & Events
    • Blog
    • In the News
    • Civic Engagement Week
    • Neighborhood Institute 2020
  • Donate
    • Donate to COVID-19 Response Fund
    • Donate to Strong City
  • Contact
Fighting racism is part of our work
July 14, 2016
Coffee, creativity, and community
September 16, 2016

Overseas flavor, home-grown opportunity

August 16, 2016

After the unrest that tore through Baltimore in April 2015, Mohammed Agbodjogbe knew he had to do something to help his adopted home city. Since arriving in Baltimore from Senegal in 1999, Agbodjogbe had focused on building a number of businesses and making nailahs.1a better life for himself and his family. Now, he decided, it was time to give back.

Agbodjogbe had operated a successful convenience store and carry-out in downtown Baltimore, but he had bigger plans. In July, he held the grand opening of Nailah’s, a well-appointed restaurant on York Road, just south of Belvedere Square, featuring authentic Senegalese dishes such as lamb and peanut butter stew or Thiebou Djeun, Senegal’s national dish of fish, tomato sauce, vegetables and rice. At the same time, he is developing a long-vacant property at 400 N. Howard St. where he is opening another restaurant, Nailah’s Kitchen, along with an organic market, three floors of apartments, and housing for a nonprofit he is forming called the ASA Foundation. He is branching out with a food truck as well.

The goal of the ASA Foundation, Agbodjogbe says, will be “to empower youth for better education, and also offer them opportunities where they don’t have access to gangs and drugs.”  Agbodjogbe says he was dismayenailahs.2d to see how the cycle of poverty and addiction was being transmitted from one generation to the next in so many families in the neighborhood. Maybe, he thought, he could do something to help.

“I want to break that cycle,” he says, “give them some guidance, opportunities where they can believe in themselves.”

To that end, Agbodjogbe has pledged to set aside 25 percent of the profits from the two restaurants for his nonprofit foundation, which he expects to be up and running by the end of September. He plans to use the space for after-school programming during the week, and intends to pay local youths to help clean up the neighborhood on weekends. Some teens may be hired to work in the restaurant part-time. And Agbodjogbe has bigger ambitions: to build the foundation up to the point where he can offer scholarships to promising students.nailahs.4

Agbodjogbe says the Howard Street location is almost ready to open, the only holdup being a dispute with BGE over the cost of bringing gas into the building. Meanwhile, he says, the York Road location is doing well, with carry-out orders coming in a steady stream and dine-in business picking up. Many customers at Nailah’s – named for Agbodjogbe’s young daughter, whose beaming face smiles at patrons from a large photo in the dining room – are already familiar with his native country’s food because another Senegalese eatery, Tam Tam, previously occupied the building.

“The neighborhood has been very welcoming,” Agbodjogbe says.

Community wealth building is an approach to economic development that puts residents and communities first, valuing equity, inclusion, and sustainability. For more information about Strong City’s Community Wealth Building initiative, contact Stephanie Geller at sgeller@strongcitybaltimore.org or 410-240-3373.

nailahs.3

Share
0

Related posts

April 7, 2020

Democracy Doesn’t Stop: Black Girls Vote’s Work Continues During COVID-19 Crisis


Read more
April 6, 2020

Karen Stokes Retires After Almost 14 Years of Leadership


Read more
March 18, 2020

New Book From Strong City Describes ‘Stories of Neighborhood Transformation’


Read more
ABOUT US

Strong City Baltimore helps people who do good do more. We believe that Baltimore is made stronger by the work of community-based initiatives and leaders. Through fiscal sponsorship and other capacity-building efforts, we provide financial management and strategic supports that empower grassroots leaders to carry out their vision of community change.

Toolbox Access
CONTACT INFORMATION

Strong City Baltimore
2101 E. Biddle Street
Stone Building
Suite 1100
Baltimore, MD 21213

Email: info@strongcitybaltimore.org

Phone: (410) 261-3500

Looking to rent space at
The 29th Street Community Center?
Call (443)213-0394

Disclosures

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR NEWSLETTER!


© 2020 Strong City Baltimore. Web Design by Baltimore Web Design