By Sheila Durant

What do you say about a man who means so much to so many people in such an extraordinary place and time?  Inextricably bound to his faith, no one can doubt that he has internalized his role as shepherd and, together with his soul mate of more than 44 years, has the God-given talent, intellect, energy, fortitude and vision to carry out his purpose on this earth.

Everyone has seen “it”, cheered “it” and sometimes roared over “it.”  That “it” is what works in the “in-between” where, in a relay handoff, the baton is placed in the hand of the receiving runner who does not turn nor need to look back to receive it.  In 2002, the “baton” was passed on to Overseer Michael Chapman who, like his two brilliant predecessors, Reverend Burnie C. McCarley, from 1927 until 1972, and Rev. Dr. Bennett W. Smith Sr. from 1972 until 2001, closed his eyes and let his faith and his soul mate, Rev. Ina R. Doss Chapman, become the wind beneath his wings….

Today, the pastoral seed of vision to create a vibrant church home has now, under his leadership, become a powerful economic and community development force within the City of East Buffalo, known as the “Fruit Belt.”  That “it” that drives the St. John – Gethsemane village community is the faithfulness to a covenant to walk with the Almighty in all aspects of the lives of the church and its flock.  To say that Rev. Chapman is a shepherd is no laughing matter.   Under his leadership, extraordinary vision, and quiet charisma, Rev. Chapman has become a “driver for social economic justice” among its more than 500 African American Disciples.  Because he “walks the walk”, no one doubts that he is able to “talk the talk”.  He has an uncanny gift to seed a big vision in the face of incredible odds and the fortitude to make it happen.

In a short span of 17 years, under the God-driven and faith based leadership of Rev. Chapman, the now debt-free St. John – Gethsemane village community church, transparently working by and through its affiliate corporations with a mission driven organizational structure, can officially take its place as a “major player in the economic and community development initiatives and future of the City of Buffalo”. In the Western New York region, more than a billion dollars of redevelopment, construction, programs and ministries are planned over the next 10 years to be reinvested by St. John-Gethsemane in the City of Buffalo’s Urban Core.  As a consequence, St. John-Gethsemane Church will be creating hundreds of jobs for minorities in construction, small businesses, health care, wellness, energy and entrepreneurial training.

In short, like Matthew recorded in the Gospel, Rev. Chapman teaches his “flock“ how to fish.  Among the fruits of his teachings, which include the historic Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church, are a few accomplishments:

• McCarley Gardens 150 (2, 3 & 4 bedrooms) for $70 million total redevelopment and 47 new builds;

• St. John Tower for $30,000,000 total redevelopment of 150, 1 bedroom 9 story senior  facility;

• St. John Townhomes II Housing Development for $16.3 million completed in 2015;

• St. John Baptist Hospice Buffalo House for $2.8 Million completed in 2008;

• Rev. Dr. Bennett W. Smith, Sr. Family Life Center for $3.8 million completed in 2001; and,

• The oldest Landmark in the Fruit Belt community is the Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church which is under historical preservation at a cost of $1.8 million.

In August 2018, Overseer Pastor Chapman, who is also Pastor of St. John Baptist Church and Gethsemane Baptist Church, President and CEO of the Fruit Belt Community Development Corporation, Inc., President CEO of WE C God II and Developer and Author of the “Buffalo Black Billion Dollar Fruit Belt Eastside Buffalo New York Comprehensive Urban Development Model” (hereinafter “Comprehensive Model”), was recently appointed as the National Chair of Economic Development for the prestigious and powerful 2.5 million-member Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.. As National Chair, Rev. Chapman will oversee its’ economic development phase under the able direction of its’ President, Timothy Steward, of Nassau Bahama.

Just who is Rev. Chapman and why is he special?  Well, he has been immersed in on-going education with Christ the King Seminary since 2001, where in 1991 – 1997 he earned his M.A.P.M. “Master of Arts Pastoral Ministry” and in 1997 – 2002 he earned his Master of Divinity. He also earned his Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Jesus the Liberator Seminary of Religious Justice in 2005 for the first Hospice by a church and palliative care facility. In 2002 – 2007 he earned his classroom Certification in Systematic Theology.

He is a Developer and Grant writer of more than $100 million dollars of grants.  But is that all?

He is selfless enough to encourage the transparent reconstruction of all corporate boards of St John Baptist Church and Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church and to provide corporate enlightenment through board training and to encourage ongoing management, economic and community development training.  Each step of enlightenment empowers its disciples. But is that all?

He is principled in how he does business having founded and successfully operated the Aloma D. Johnson Fruit Belt Community Charter School and the State certified Erma D. Robinson Day Care and the Century Life Style Health & Wellness Medical Facility.  But is that all?

He is tech savvy and respectful of the benefit of having technology serve his flock by encouraging the use of cloud based IT systems to manage more efficient workflows.  But is that all there is?

He is grounded spiritually in that he draws from his well of his strength his commitment to his 44 year old marriage and family of more than thirty grandchildren and six great grandchildren from five children.  But is that all?

He allows himself to be flanked by trusted professionally strong Trustees who have been given permission to express their truths to power as well as carry out the oversight mission of St. John Baptist and Gethsemane Baptist Church.  But is that all?

How does anyone bear such responsibility and weight?  In the building of St. John – Gethsemane, Rev Chapman has had to wrestle with the painful strategy of having demons among the politically blind, many of whom are of like color and background.  To understand what drives Rev. Chapman, it is important to know something about the neighborhood called “Fruit Belt.”

Wikipedia describes St. John – Gethsemane Baptist Church as being “located within the East Side of Buffalo.  The neighborhood is centered along High Street running west-east and Jefferson Avenue running north – south.  It is enclosed along its eastern boundary by the Kensington Expressway and Michigan Avenue as its Western Boundary, separating the Fruit Belt from the Medical Campus.”  At present, the Fruit Belt is a residential neighborhood in Buffalo, New York located adjacent to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

This article was provided as a courtesy of HeartandSoul.com. Click here to view the full article. 

The project was delayed for several years due to, amongst many things, a 2015 moratorium on the sale of property owned by the city of Buffalo.

Reverend Michael Chapman speaks with The Business Journals’ Jacob Tierney about the progress Buffalo’s Black Billion has made and his plans for its future. Please here to read the article.

Reverend Chapman has 40 years of experience serving as a pastor at St. John Baptist Church. He is a lifelong resident of the Fruit Belt whose resume readily chronicles his commitment to the betterment of the community. His nonprofit organization Buffalo’s Black Billion has demonstrated his dedication uplifting the lives of Ellicott District residents. Buffalo’s Black Billion embarked on a $57 million renovation of the McCarley Gardens, a low-to-moderate-income housing facility. It also has plans to create an open-air farmer’s market, which will be located on High St. between Locust  and Mulberry. The farmer’s market will attract customers from the neighborhood as well as from the Medical Campus and create job opportunities for residents.

Deidre Williams from Buffalo News spoke with Reverend Chapman regarding his decision to run, previous experience and his plans for the future of the Ellicott District. Please click here to read full article.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The historic Fruit Belt neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side, with its Grape, Peach and Lemon streets, was once thriving. Yet now, in place of the orchards that once gave the area its name, there are abandoned homes with broken steps and “no trespassing” signs, overgrown empty plots of land and a troubling lack of grocery stores.

The only supermarket on the East Side is Tops, where a white gunman killed 10 Black residents in May. While the tragedy brought national attention to this neighborhood and its status as a food desert, access to grocery stores with fresh produce remains a problem more than six months later, according to locals like Alex Wright.

Now, organizations like the African Heritage Food Co-op, which Wright founded, as well as groups like Buffalo’s Black Billion and Neu Water & Associates, are building supermarkets, growing gardens and investing in providing fresh fruits and vegetables to residents here. Their larger aim is to create a self-sufficient community.

“It’s about gainful employment,” Wright, 43, said in October of his future grocery store. “We want our employees to be able to go on vacation. We want them to be able to put their kids in tutoring and to go and get the car they can afford and to put the down payment on the house they would like. We want them to have careers.”

The problems that plague the East Side are rooted in racial segregation and redlining policies implemented decades ago. Black Buffalo residents are six times more likely to live in an area without a grocery store compared to white residents, according to a 2018 report by the Partnership for the Public Good, a Buffalo-based think tank.

The Fruit Belt neighborhood was once bustling with grocery stores, banks and other businesses, Wright said, until the heightened presence of Black families after the 1940s, paired with redlining, restrictive covenants and other racist policies, led white families to abandon the neighborhood. Through residential segregation, Black families were prevented from buying homes in affluent white suburban neighborhoods and were steered by realtors to live in declining areas with devalued properties, like the East Side. Land banking, when private or public organizations hold land for future development, also made it difficult for Black leaders to develop their communities, according to a 2021 report by the University of Buffalo.

Today, the impacts of redlining — discriminatory practices that prevented Black families from receiving loans to purchase homes — are still visible. Many corporate leaders avoid building supermarkets in Black communities, and there is no significant improvement in Black home ownership rates over the past 30 years, according to the report. Community members fought for years before the Tops on Jefferson Avenue was built in 2003.

“That’s why I don’t call this a food desert,” Wright said. “I call it food apartheid. You have to use that word because it was racism through and through.”

Wright and other leaders are working to combat that. One organization, the Buffalo Black Billion, is led by a local pastor, Michael Chapman of St. John and Gethsemane Missionary Baptist churches. It has invested millions into 43 blocks of the Fruit Belt over the past two decades to build over 70 townhomes, a senior family life center, a hospice facility and other establishments to help strengthen the neighborhood, he said.

Chapman, 70, who was born and raised on the East Side, said that his organization is an “economic engine” for the neighborhood and owns 70% of the private property in the Fruit Belt. The redevelopment project, called the St. John Gethsemane Village, he added, is part of his church’s mission to feed the hungry, cloth the poor and provide housing and education.

“Everything we do is to build a footprint for the kingdom of God,” Chapman said. “So, we don’t do this for personal gain. We do it for the church and the ministry and the well-being of the community.”

One of Chapman’s current projects is the High Street Market, an open-air farmers market that will offer fresh fruits and vegetables. In partnership with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the $800,000 project will also allow youth to plant and cultivate gardens.

Chapman has plans to open his market next year, even though construction hasn’t started yet. He and his team are visiting the Buffalo Common Council on Dec. 20 to discuss.

By providing healthy food, Chapman said he also wants to increase the lifespan of Black residents in the community, for whom health disparities are all too familiar.

Rita Hubbard-Robinson, 62, has lived on the East Side for almost four decades. Hubbard-Robinson, who is currently the CEO of NeuWater & Associates, said that in the 15 years she’s spent studying poor health outcomes in communities like the East Side, she’s dealt with residents who have developed diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and obesity from a lack of access to healthy food. This, she said, can lead to chronic health issues and even premature death.

From 2016 to 2018, Black people in Erie County lost 5,000 more years of potential life than white people, according to the University of Buffalo’s 2021 report.

Efforts to offer fresh produce to residents of this neighborhood have been going on for decades before the shooting.

NeuWater & Associates is replicating a 2009 project from Louisville, Kentucky, called the Healthy Food in a Hurry Corner Store Initiative, which works with business owners to provide healthy food options in convenience stores. Since Buffalo adopted the project in 2015, Hubbard-Robinson said 13 corner stores have joined the program. NeuWater & Associates also partnered with the Buffalo Freedom Gardens in 2019 to work with churches and other faith-based groups to grow food in gardens.

She is also a volunteer coordinator for the First Fruits Food Pantry at the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church in Buffalo. The organization distributes bags of groceries, mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, to residents who are “so grateful,” she said.

“He didn’t know where he was going to get his groceries from and he came to the pantry,” Hubbard-Robinson recalled of one man she once gave food to. “And we provided him with two bags … and he cried to his car.”

Like Wright and Chapman, Hubbard-Robinson hopes to build a market in her community. The initiative, called Project Rainfall, will use a 50,000-square-foot building at 537 East Delavan Avenue for a farmer’s market and hydroponic garden. The project will also invite local urban growers to participate in the food hub. According to Hubbard-Robinson, the project has received $3.5 million so far and needs $6 million to complete and an additional $3.2 million to support the program, to buy equipment and hire staff.

Despite the challenges that lay ahead, when Wright stands at the future site for his grocery store, he envisions a hopeful future — partly because he’s not alone.

“We have a bunch of people here working together,” Wright said. “So, the beautiful thing is, this is just like a tornado of strong individuals coming together to make beautiful things happen in Buffalo.”

Following the 2022 Buffalo Shooting at the Tops located on Jefferson Ave., the church has set its sights on the Jefferson strip as its next redevelopment project. The church’s plan to reinvigorate the Fruit Belt, known as Buffalo’s Black Billion, is in the process of building a open-air farmer’s market on High St., between Mulberry and Locust.

In the past St. John has established a Community Benefit Agreement with the residents of the area it’s developing. As part of the agreement, resident input and ideas are sought and adopted into the redevelopment efforts.

The redevelopment of Jefferson Ave would do much to create job opportunities in the community. It would be a massive step towards decreasing crime rates and restoring Jefferson Ave as a thriving center of commerce.

WIVB’s Tara Lynch, spoke to Reverend Michael Chapman regarding Buffalo’s Black Billion’s current projects and its future endeavors in the Jefferson area. Please click here to read the full article.

The plot of land will accommodate the nonprofit’s vision of a mixed-used community  space that will include an outdoor market place, an indoor retail space, a community garden and low-income housing.

The Fruit Belt, named after the fruit trees that lined the yards of its first settlers is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. Due to its proximity to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the Fruit Belt neighborhood sits on some of the most coveted real estate in the surrounding Buffalo area.

The purchase of the plot of land is part of Buffalo’s Black Billion’s mission of reviving the Fruit Belt neighborhood and ensuring food security in the area and the surrounding communities of Buffalo’s East Side.

WKBW’s Ryan Arbogast spoke with the President of the Baptist Minister’s Conference of Buffalo, Reverend Tim Brown, regarding the purchase of the land and the upcoming construction. Please click here for full article.