Greenbar Opens First Location in Fort Washington

Fast Food With a Healthy Kick

More and more fast food restaurants are listing their calorie count on the menu board. A burger, fries and a pop soda can cost you more than $12 and over 1200 calories. Geesh! Not so hungry anymore for a burger. Those still looking for something quick to eat that is accessible, affordable, and healthy can get just that from the new Greenbar that opened its doors in Fort Washington earlier this month.

Greenbar will be a farm-to-table restaurant addressing inequality in the hospitality industry and the lack of healthier food options in communities that need it the most.

Greenbar Co-Founders Sharisse Barksdale-Lane and Brandon Barksdale.

It’s Fort Washington is located at 940 E Swan Creek Road is situated in one of the highest-income African-American-majority counties in the country but remains a food swamp and healthy food desert with an abundance of fast food, junk food outlets and convenience stores. Healthy food deserts are geographic areas where residents have few to no convenient options for securing affordable and healthy foods — especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Greenbar was born in 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic, when the founders grew frustrated with the lack of healthy food options available for takeout and delivery in their community.

"Although Prince George's County is an affluent Black suburb, with income and property value data to support that, it has limited to no access to healthy food options, an issue that was magnified during COVID," said Sharisse Barksdale-Lane, Co-Founder of Greenbar. "The unhealthier restaurant chains are in this neighborhood by design to exploit the people living in this area. Our goal in opening Greenbar is to bring healthy food options to underserved or otherwise neglected communities and address the health disparities and other social inequities."