Under the shade of a white pop-up canopy in a parking lot in Norfolk’s Berkley neighborhood, a row of massive, green-striped watermelons stretched across a cloth-covered table. Some tipped the scales at 20 pounds or more. As shoppers gathered under the tent to look over baskets of fresh produce, Thelonious Cook hoisted one onto the scale, charging a dollar per pound.
That hands-on connection is the core of a new effort in Berkley this summer: bringing local, Black-grown produce directly to a community organizers say has long been a food desert.
The Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Market runs the first and third Saturday of each month through November outside E. Palmer Supermarket, a Black-owned grocery store that has served the Berkley neighborhood since 2021. Beyond fresh fruits and vegetables, the market features a wide array of local vendors, with offerings including cold-pressed juices, natural sea moss and handmade skin care products.
It was started by Cook, president of the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Caucus, a network supporting Black farmers throughout the region. The idea came together with help from Navi Johnson, the market manager of the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Market.
Johnson is also founder of the RVA Black Farmers Market, which she started in 2020 after noticing residents in her own Church Hill neighborhood in Richmond relying on gas stations for groceries. According to Cook, Johnson’s experience building the RVA market made her a natural partner for launching one in Berkley.
Cook grows produce and manages the market through his own operation, Mighty Thunder Cloud Edible Forest, a small farm he runs on family land on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Cook said the partnership with E. Palmer fills a local food gap after Farm Fresh closed, and the farmers market gives local Black farmers a direct platform to reach residents.
"It's still not known that Black farmers exist," Cook said. "So we wanted to come out and allow the community to meet us and see some of the things that we're producing."
Looking ahead, Cook said success for the market would mean more farmers, more foot traffic and a lasting presence in the neighborhood.
"It just needs to be an anchor in our community where people know that they can get food that they can trust," Cook said. "They know their farmer. They can get things that are in season, and we can all get healthy together."
Zoe Windley, who owns the cold-pressed juice brand Life Juices, joined the market as a vendor this summer after building a friendship with Cook over the past few years.
"Having the accessibility to fresh produce that's grown local by our people is so important," Windley said.
The need for that kind of access extends well beyond Berkley. According to data from the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, Norfolk has a food insecurity rate of about 16%, or roughly 36,000 residents. About 12,000 of those are children, meaning nearly a quarter of all children in Norfolk don’t know where their next meal will come from. The city has one of the highest rates among all urban communities in South Hampton Roads.
Christopher Tan, the foodbank’s president and CEO, said demand across the foodbank’s service area has continued to grow over the last several years, with transaction volume jumping 30% beyond what the organization handled at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tan noted that academic definitions give way to economic realities in Hampton Roads.
"You can measure food deserts based on the proximity to a grocer, and that's a legitimate and good measure," Tan said. "But the reality of it is that if I can't afford those groceries, it doesn't matter if I live right next to it."
Tan noted that fresh produce and protein are typically the first items to fall off a family's plate during tight financial times because they are less affordable and have a shorter shelf life than processed foods.
Tan praised efforts like the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Market for bridging both the economic and cultural gaps in urban neighborhoods like Berkley, where residents rarely have direct access to farm-fresh food or local growers.
"Eating straight from the farm is a very different experience as far as produce than it would be from grocery stores," Tan said. "There's a freshness and a quality to it, but there's also a local flavor to it... To know that not only was this food grown by farmers in our community, but farmers that look like the communities that they're serving, that identify with the communities that they're serving, has a lasting effect."
Economic pressures remain steep across the city; more than 32,000 people people in Norfolk received a combined $5.7 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in June, according to the most recent data from the Virginia Department of Social Services. The farmer’s market has been working to get certified for SNAP and EBT, flexible payment options Cook said are part of a broader push to make the market accessible, alongside cooking demonstrations and recipe cards.
The market grows out of years of groundwork Cook has put into farming and organizing across the region. He grew up in Hampton, studied IT and worked in the field before turning to agriculture on his family's land in 2016. Over the past decade, he built his business through appearances at farmers markets stretching from Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach to the Eastern Shore and Richmond.
"My mission has always been to provide access to my community, and then just to educate them on the different things that can be grown locally here," Cook said.
By 2023, Cook had been farming for roughly seven years when he found himself fielding requests from a new wave of people in the aftermath of the pandemic. As younger growers started tapping him on the shoulder for advice, Cook saw an opportunity to serve as a bridge between the new generation and the older mentors who had guided him. That sense of responsibility became the foundation for the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Caucus.
Membership grew dramatically within the first year, prompting the group to hold its first annual conference just 12 months after its founding meeting. Cook said the conference now includes workshops, peer-to-peer learning and farm tours in whichever city is hosting that year, with 2026’s event set for Delaware.
Land and infrastructure remain the biggest obstacles for Black farmers, Cook said, ranging from a lack of inherited land to gaps in critical equipment, barns and cold storage. He said the caucus allows farmers to pool resources to purchase equipment and aggregate products so they can meet demand from wholesale and institutional buyers, something individual growers often struggle to do alone.
Yet for all its formal initiatives, Cook emphasizes that the caucus's core strength is simple: offering an affinity space where Black farmers can connect, share wisdom, and navigate common challenges together.
"Most members cite community, the value of community and networking, as the main reason why they join the caucus," Cook said.
For Windley, the juice vendor, the appeal of the market comes down to something similarly personal.
"A lot of times you can tell that it's truly what they're [customers] doing is supporting," Windley said. "They just want to come support, which is a beautiful thing."
Ultimately, Cook sees initiatives like the Berkley farmers market as a way to feed families while building long-term economic and community strength from the ground up.
"We're empowering our community," Cook said. "We're circulating our dollars, investing back into local businesses, and if our farmers and our producers are successful, then again, they're the bedrock of our communities, and that keeps our communities safe and healthy and resilient."
