In Southside Richmond’s Hillside Court, there is an oasis. Partly shaded by great oak trees, tended by young people from the neighborhood and often picked over by eager residents, nonprofit GroundworkRVA’s Hillside Mini Farm has become a hub of the community.
Darquan Robertson spent much of his childhood in Hillside Court, when the field where the farm is situated now was just that — an empty field. He took an interest in working outdoors when he was young and saw the big riding mowers used to cut the grass.
“I wanted to work outdoors and with machines and learn new skills,” Robertson said.
In high school, Robertson attended the Richmond Technical Center, where he got connected with GroundworkRVA. He took the opportunity to learn about green infrastructure by doing the work — planning and constructing revitalization projects around Richmond.
Now, Robertson says he sees endless possibilities in the formerly empty field and feels like he was called to it to help kids see those possibilities too.
“Like I said, I was that kid looking out the window. Seeing someone mow the grass was just inspiring to me cause I didn’t see much,” he said. “So you could just imagine what it’s like now to the kids that’s out here… seeing their community grow actually edible food to eat.”
During growing seasons, Hillside Mini Farm provides local-as-you-can-get produce for residents. Farm manager Katie Carline said fruits and veggies are often picked over before they’re even ripe. Two Hillside residents, both elementary schoolers, confirmed this, telling VPM News how delicious the unripe “scrawberries” they ate earlier in the day were.
And produce isn’t all the farm provides. Recently, GroundworkRVA began employing teenagers to work on its youth farm team. They learn skills they can take into adulthood, and get help with a few essentials for young people.
“They’re being paid and we gave them bank accounts, we would get them drivers licenses [or state IDs] — autonomy,” Carline said.
The youth farm team is funded by a multi-year grant administered by the US Department of Agriculture — or it was, until USDA clawed back the roughly $500,000 remaining on the grant in April. That was set to cover two more years of employment and hands-on experiences for kids in the community.
A USDA spokesperson told VPM News that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “is working to reorient the department to be more effective at serving the American people and put farmers first. USDA has been closely reviewing funding to ensure taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are supporting real conservation efforts.”
The spokesperson referenced President Donald Trump’s executive order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” and said the funds would be available for other National Resources Conservation Service programs.
Nathan Burrell, GroundworkRVA’s executive director, said the change was frustrating and happened without warning.
“What I know is that exposure is everything for a kid. You never know what a kid's gonna latch on to as they get older, but I do know, if you've never been exposed to it — can't even dream it,” Burrell said.
Melissa Guevara, director of youth programs, said the nonprofit had to break the bad news to the youth farm team quickly.
“[We had to] stipend them out to make sure that they at least got covered for what they had already worked, but then they had to know the truth that they would not be able to rely on that money anymore,” Guevara said.
Losing the grant also means reducing the frequency of other programs aimed to guide the nonprofit’s work, such as Parent Cafés, where residents could share what challenges they face in raising their children. And GroundworkRVA, which also works to give kids mobility by distributing and fixing bikes, won’t be able to expand to a new bike shop and farm in Whitcomb Court.
But Burrell added the nonprofit was committed to keeping the Hillside Mini Farm running, so the benefits of fresh food wouldn’t go away.
Robertson said he was deprived of access to many healthy foods as a kid, instead going to the nearby convenience stores for processed foods.
That’s because this oasis lies in a desert of sorts.
“In nature, deserts are natural. They're a natural-forming phenomenon,” said Burrell. “Food deserts are purposeful.”
Hillside is in a food desert, an area where residents have to travel long distances to reach readily available fresh, unprocessed foods.
Burrell said food deserts are the result of intentional choices. City leaders, grocery store chains and others may stop stores being built in some places but encourage them in others — think Carytown’s quadruple-threat of Publix, Ellwood Thompson’s, The Fresh Market and Kroger, all in the space of about four blocks.
Burrell said GroundworkRVA is pushing harder for donations and volunteers from the community to keep this source of fresh food where there wasn’t any before, and so far, the community has responded.
“Seeds of change… are growing right here,” Burrell said. “And you see it in the youth that are engaging in the space. You see it in the adults that, like now, cherish this space.”
For his part, Robertson said access to more foods has encouraged him to try new things. For instance, he’s not normally a fan of cantaloupe. But there was one on the farm that caught his eye — and it didn’t disappoint.
“This specific one from here… it was like calling me to take it,” he said. “At that moment, I was eating something from the community I grew up in.”
