By Tuesday, Nikki Gibbs had most of the essentials for her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. But two days before the holiday, she realized she still needed noodles for her son’s favorite side dish: Macaroni and cheese.

The Brooklyn resident doesn’t have a car, and the Walmart she frequents is more than 4 miles away. In the past, she would have had to hitch a ride with a friend or factor in a one-way bus commute of more than an hour just to pick up a bag of elbow macaroni.

Brooklyn — like other neighboring South Baltimore communities — is in a food desert, defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an area where residents have “limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food.”

This year, however, Gibbs had a better option. She filled out an online form, and on Tuesday morning hopped onto Refuge Ride, a free shuttle bus that picked her up at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Brooklyn branch, just a few blocks from her house, and took her to Walmart for some noodle shopping.

Pasta procured, Gibbs boarded the waiting bus, which shuttled her back to the library. The entire trip took less than an hour.

Gibbs, who heard about Refuge Ride from a friend, was the shuttle’s only passenger Tuesday. Billy Humphrey hopes to change that.

Humphrey is the founder of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit City of Refuge, which launched the shuttle service in June. The van serves the “South Baltimore 6,” a group of six communities that comprises Brooklyn, Cherry Hill, Curtis Bay, Westport, Mt. Winans and Lakeland. Of the six, Lakeland is the only neighborhood that is not a food desert.

The free bus connects neighbors to “food, pharmacy and fun,” Humphrey said, with trips to Walgreens, Walmart and Aldi, as well as the newly built Middle Branch Fitness & Wellness Center in Cherry Hill. The shuttle can also drop off riders at transportation hubs linking them with other attractions.

Most riders use the bus to pick up groceries and prescriptions.

“The food was real critical; that’s the biggest driver,” Humphrey said. “You can get to a grocery store using public transportation, but it requires an hour to an hour and a half, and it almost always requires a bus transfer.”

Push for more riders

Melvin Stone knows the frustration of waiting for a bus.

When Stone moved from Alabama to Brooklyn more than a decade ago, he initially rode the bus as his primary means of transportation.

“There’s been times when I was sitting on the bus and it just kept going,” he said, ignoring would-be passengers waiting at the bus stop.

Now, as the shuttle driver for Refuge Ride, Stone makes sure neighbors don’t get left behind. Many of the bus’s regular riders are seniors and live alone. He chats them up on the way to and from the store, learning the latest about their lives.

On Tuesday, Gibbs talked about her Thanksgiving dinner plans, her pit bull’s new puppies and the Nightmare Before Christmas-themed cupcakes she recently decorated for a niece’s birthday. The shuttle, she said, “is lovely, especially if you don’t have a vehicle in the community.”

The idea for Refuge Ride took root more than a year ago in the transportation committee of the South Baltimore 7 Coalition, or SB7, a group of the South Baltimore 6 communities as well as the new Baltimore Peninsula development. Humphrey sits on SB7’s board, and volunteered City of Refuge to run the program.

The coalition, which allocates community benefit money promised as part of the Baltimore Peninsula development deal, doled out a $190,000 grant to fund the purchase and operation of the 15-seat, handicap-accessible shuttle.

Six months in, the program has seen modest success. Humphrey says Refuge Ride has transported 46 unique riders, many of whom take multiple trips.

But he would like to see ridership grow.

“We’ve had enough success that we want to continue to promote it and increase it if we can,” Humphrey said. With more riders, the shuttle could add night and weekend shifts. It could also target new sources of funding, from community organizations to businesses interested in buying ads posted on the bus.

“We’re really trying to remove barriers, and get the word out,” he said.

Have a news tip? Contact reporter Amanda Yeager at ayeager@baltsun.com, 443-790-1738 or @amandacyeager on X.