2024 season kicks off May 23rd

Northside CSA

Responding to years of conversations led by Northside Richmond residents about increasing food security in the neighborhood, the Northside Food Access Coalition formed and was awarded a Virginia Food Access Investment Fund grant in 2021 to build a cold storage shed to offer a community supported agriculture (CSA) membership to Northside community members. The Northside CSA partners with local Black farmers to purchase freshly harvested and culturally relevant produce to supply seasonal CSA shares available for purchase online and picked up in person. All CSA shares accept SNAP-EBT as a form of payment and are 50% off for EBT customers thanks to Virginia Fresh Match.

The Coalition is supported by Community Food Fellows who assist in the planning and implementation of the CSA. Food fellows are community leaders who are responsible for engaging community members about locally grown produce, healthy food access, and bridge the connections between farmers, CSA customers, Northside residents, and everyone in between.

Richmond’s Northside Food Access Coalition

Anchored by the Brookland Park corridor, the Northside community is home to over 35,000 residents (2010 census) of which 56% have low food access (USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas). Not having convenient, healthy food to purchase nearby has been a topic of discussion between residents and community organizations for many years. In the Summer of 2019, community neighbors, farmers, and organizations came together to host monthly meetings with the goals of:

1) increasing community access to fresh food in Northside Richmond
2) control over a local food system
3) equitable engagement opportunities for community members
4) building relationships throughout the entire food system value chain to ensure sustainability.

Current community partners include:

American Heart Association
Happily Natural
Historic Brookland Park Collective
Foodshed Capital
Nomad Deli
Richmond Community High School
Richmond City Health District
Richmond Food Justice Alliance
Virginia Community Capital
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Richmond’s Northside Community

The Brookland Park Historic District, maintained by the Historic Brookland Park Collective, is composed of several late-19th and early 20th century subdivisions on the Northside of Richmond, Virginia. The largest and earliest of these subdivisions is Brookland Park which began in 1890. Brookland Park was a thriving commercial and residential district for most of the early 20th century until white flight took hold and people left the area for (perceived) better opportunities. The Brookland Park District remained a thriving community for its Black residents and businesses, growing exponentially through the civil rights era but suffering immensely through the burgeoning drug epidemic of the 1980s. This led to a massive amount of vacancy and blight that remained prevalent until the recent revitalization efforts we're witnessing now.

As a result of historic disinvestment and gentrification, Brookland Park Boulevard is a central corridor of Northside Richmond that has long been a food insecure and historically marginalized community. Access to food is limited to highly processed food sold at convenience stores and corner markets. Local developments in the area are generally not resident-driven and do not meet the needs of all residents equally. Dollars spent on food do not stay within the local economy and the nearest farmers markets are not within convenient walking distance.

The Northside Food Access Coalition strives to build health and wealth equity for Black farmers, Northside residents, Brookland Park business owners, and beyond by increasing access to healthy food and making our local food economy more resilient.