The Currency of Trust
The Market at 25th brought nutritional grocery shopping back to Church Hill after the neighborhood’s lack of options left it a certified food desert for over 20 years. After surviving a pandemic and a river…
Shalom Farms
By Elena Durazo Shalom Farms: Humanizing the Food System “These are plants that we’re growing for other people, so please make sure you don’t eat them!” Marc Charbonier shouts, distressed, to a group of…
Thriving in the Desert
By Logan Jones-Wilkins A food desert, as defined by the US Department of Agriculture, is an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable, nutritious food. Yet, even deserts are ecosystems, where life…
Micro-Farm
Growing Sustainable Futures: the Micro-Farm at the University of Richmond’s Business School By Claire Le Du Collaborating with the company Babylon, students at the University of Richmond started a small farm in a corner…
The Herman Connection
Herman “Big Herm” Baskerville himself. (Photo by Aidan Lubin.) By Aidan Lubin and Logan Jones-Wilkins Herman Baskerville, the man who puts the “Herm” in Big Herm’s Kitchen in Jackson Ward, gave up his chance for…
Real Roots
By Elena Durazo “I refuse to politicize the process of growing food,” Mark Davis tells me with an assertive shake of his head. “I hold a strong disdain for that.” Yet, he says, “what…
Feeding the Future
By Evelyn Zelmer We sit in what used to be a church parking lot, on stumps that used to be trees, surrounded by the promise of everything that is still to come. Across from me…
Full Circle
The COO of The Market at 25th stepped down from his district manager position at The Kroger Company to return to the neighborhood where it all began. By Mary Margaret Clouse As Jae Scott…
Farm Bus
By Bettina Johnston and Logan Jones-Wilkins The West End of Richmond is nobody’s idea of a food desert. And Libbie Mill, a newly minted townhouse complex in the heart of the West End, is one…
Meadow Bridge Fridge
By Jackie Llanos Every afternoon, from lunchtime to evening, Michelle Redd stands by a stoplight at the intersection of Lauburnum Avenue and Chamberlayne Road holding a sign asking for help. She has been standing there…