The inspiring story of Duron Chavis, indoor urban farm director at Virginia State University, who's helping citizens of Richmond, Virginia, have access to locally-grown produce year round.

When he started looking to expand his involvement with Urban Agriculture, Chavis came to know about a program called Renew Richmond led by John Lewis, certified health education specialist with the Virginia Health Department. They started working together on an urban farm and have, as of now, expanded to have a total of six Urban Agriculture sites, an Urban Farm which includes high tunnels, two School Gardens and community gardens.

The produce grown on the Urban Farm is sold to local grocery stores, restaurants and to people in the community. It is a new, modified version of community supported agriculture: they offer delivery of veggie boxes to those people who cannot go to the pop-up farmers markets, and all of the community gardens and farm are in the Richmond city limits.

Some Richmond high school students are now involved with a program called Growing Up, which teaches students about culinary arts and Urban Agriculture, and once the Urban Agriculture Center’s kitchen is finished, high school students in other cities will have an opportunity to participate in the program as well.

Crops that have been grown inside the Urban Agriculture Center include kale, mustard greens, basil, lettuce, Swiss chard, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and watercress.

“We are not only running an indoor farm, but we have become an aggregator of produce. Local farmers bring in their fresh produce for sale and distribution” Chavis said, “We are a research center, and part of the research is economic sustainability. Our focus is community engagement and teaching the community so that they can do these things for themselves”.

Take a look at Duron Chavis' inspiring TED Talk speech on "Revitalizing the hood with Urban Agriculture"

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