The Resiliency Garden Initative
If you are concerned about food security issues during this time and live in the Richmond Region (area code 804), we will build a raised bed for you in your backyard at ZERO cost.
COVID-19 has illuminated how pressing the issue of access to healthy food is for communities throughout the country. Not only have individuals encountered tighter purse strings due to job loss and lay-offs as a result of the pandemic, people with pre-existing chronic illnesses face higher risk of contracting the virus in public. Apart from affordability and public health pressures, even before the COVID-19 outbreak; formerly redlined neighborhoods disproportionately lacked access to healthy food retail options such as grocery stores or farmers markets.
We understand that it will continue to become harder and harder to purchase food for many. As unemployment numbers continue to rise across the region, the best way for people to ensure that they have access to high-quality food is to grow it themselves.
For that reason, Happily Natural Day stewards the Resiliency Garden Project. The Resiliency Garden Project empowers the community by building raised bed for people in their backyards at ZERO cost. Since our launch in April 2020, we have delivered over 300 raised beds throughout the Richmond Region. For individuals without a backyard, we steward multiple greenspaces across the region, including a 1 acre community orchard in Southside Richmond and 1 acre urban farm in Northside Richmond to in support of community resiliency efforts.
Each applicant receives one 6×4 raised bed and soil. We also provide seedlings, seeds and tools to assist folks in their gardening efforts. We are also providing online resources and classes to assist people in learning how to grow their own food.
If you would like to invest in this work financially – please make a donation. Raised beds on average cost about $75-$100 each including soil, wood and hand tools. As such; if you can afford to support someone else’s raised bed please make a contribution here: https://thenaturalfestival.com/donations/donate/
Once scheduled, a member of our organization will be in contact with you to schedule the delivery of your raised bed; subject to access to labor and delivery resources.
