Happily Natural Day promotes holistic health, wellness and social change through transformation of the built environment for food justice and climate resiliency. We envision a black owned and controlled food system in Central Virginia.

Our organization manages mulitple urban greenspaces across the Richmond Region. In addition to training community members in how to grow food - we steward a 2 acre food justice and climate resiliency demonstration called Sankofa Community Orchard. The space features solar powered drip irrigation systems connected to 1000 gallon rainwater catchment systems, outdoor kitchen space, over 80 fruit trees, murals, multiple perennial fruiting shrubs, annual vegetable production plots and pollinator gardens. The space shows how urban agriculture can serve as a storm water management best practice while also serving as a community gathering space for community based groups across the region.

Produce grown at Sankofa and other spaces we manage is distributed through our collaboration with the Northside Food Access Coalition. In collaboration with Northside Richmond community members and food system stakeholders, we helped to design and implement a coolbot shed that is managed by community members. The cold storage unit serves as an aggregator for black farmers across the region who are able to provide produce cooperatively for farm shares that are sold by the Northside Food Access Coalition eliminating the need for the farmer to sit at the farmers market hoping to sell their harvest. Instead, produce is sold directly to the market; and the market sells farms shares directly to community members.

Over the last decade that we have participated in this movement we learned one of the largest hurdles aspiring beginning farmers had was access to land. Young farmers often aren’t resourced with the capital and/credit necessary to outright purchase large parcels of land - let along have the experience needed to be good stewards of large acre farm enterprises. As such are entering the chapter of food justice work that focuses on land justice - land acquistion and strategies for land development.

We work with community land trusts to acquire land for community control of urban greenspace. It’s a model that can be applied across the country.

Organization social media info: @happilynaturalfestival

@sankofaorchard

Happily Natural Day

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