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‘Black Space Matters’ Exhibit Transforms Asphalt Lot into Garden

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The “Commonwealth” exhibit at VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art features work from 10 artists, including an outdoor garden installation by local activist Duron Chavis — which looks pretty amazing from an overhead view.

A local activist transformed a vacant lot outside the Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond to highlight issues of food security and the importance of Black and brown community spaces.

The “Commonwealth” exhibit at Virginia Commonwealth University’s ICA features work from 10 artists including an outdoor installation created by activist and community farmer Duron Chavis, who builds gardens throughout Richmond. The full exhibit seeks to examine how common resources influence the wealth and well-being of communities.

Chavis proposed the resiliency garden exhibit in 2019, during a public forum at the ICA. The resiliency garden — food grown to weather the tough times and to have food independence — is installed in an asphalt lot at Grace and Belvidere streets next to the ICA, and features 30 raised beds of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Concept drawing for Duron Chavis’ Resiliency Garden, 2020 design by Quilian Riano of DSGN AGNC.

An extension of the garden exhibit is the “Black Space Matters” mural by Southside artist Silly Genius. A wall in the lot is painted, with fruit making the word Black; beneath the garden in big, yellow letters is the phrase “Space Matters.” The garden beds have historic quotes from civil rights leaders Kwame Ture and Malcolm X, among other activists. 

“Black Space Matters means that Black people need space,” Chavis said. “We need space that is explicitly designed, planned, and implemented by Black and brown people.”

Chavis, along with a crew of volunteers, started building the garden on Aug. 10, while the ICA temporarily closed to install other exhibits.

“We invited him to think with us about how to activate a vacant lot next to the ICA,” said Stephanie Smith, ICA chief curator. “You could think about what it means to take a space and institutional resources, then give them over to an activist.”

Chavis seeks to address lack of food access through his activism. Food insecurity, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food,” is an issue in Richmond’s low-income neighborhoods. The city had over 35,000 food-insecure people in 2018, according to Feeding America, a network of more than 200 food banks.

“In a conversation about food justice, Black people are predominately impacted by lack of food access,” Chavis said. “We need space to address that issue.”

Low income communities need access to resources and necessary skills to solve food wealth issues on their own, he said. 

“We do not need anybody to come into our community to drop off food,” Chavis said. 

He’s been doing work like this since 2012 and doesn’t have a hard count of how many garden beds have been built. 

“Dozens, oh god, it’s all across the city,” he said. 

Chavis amplified his efforts this year because of the pandemic. He fundraised and received a grant, according to a VPM report, to build over 200 resiliency gardens with the help of volunteers. 

The “Commonwealth” exhibit features work from 10 artists including an outdoor installation created by community farmer, Duron Chavis, who builds gardens throughout Richmond. The resiliency garden is installed in an asphalt lot next to the Institute for Contemporary Art and features 30 raised beds of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Photo by VCU CNS.

Quilian Riano, an architect at New York studio DSGN AGNC, designed the concept drawing for the ICA garden, which was envisioned as a public space for conversation and lecture. The completed garden is nearly identical to the original design, except with an added texture and dimension, Riano said.

 The “Commonwealth” exhibit will be open until Jan. 17, 2021. After the exhibit ends, the gardens’ supplies and plants will be redistributed to other resiliency garden project locations throughout Richmond. Chavis collaborates with other groups and people to help people grow their own food during the pandemic.

Tickets to the indoor exhibitions can be reserved on the ICA website. Exhibits include a video performance by indigenous artist Tanya Lukin Linklater, Carolina Caycedo’s “Distressed Debt” and a sculpture by Lukin Linklater and Tiffany Shaw-Collinge.

Written by India Espy-Jones, Capital News Service. Top Photo by VCU CNS.

Speaking The Language

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The Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center is a longstanding local organization that works to help victims of domestic violence. Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, though, they have been taking on more challenges facing Central Virginia’s Latino community.

Leer en Español

“Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish.” It’s a phrase that the Latino community is all too familiar with in the United States. Language barriers are an obstacle that the Latino community has to work around on a daily basis. Normally, it’s just a mundane obstacle when asking for directions, or maybe a specific product. But when that obstacle is placed between a domestic violence victim and the help they need, it makes things that much more difficult.

Gabriela Telepman, an outreach and volunteer coordinator with The Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center (LIVE Center), said that they strive to not have any Spanish speaking victims hear “I don’t speak Spanish” when they’re seeking services. “Our agency is the first and only victim service agency in the state of Virginia that can guarantee all of its services are provided by not only bilingual, but also trained bicultural advocates,” Telepman said. “This is how we build trust with our clients.”

The LIVE Center’s mission is to provide education, advocacy, and support to Spanish speaking individuals in Virginia who are affected by violence and injustice, in order to ensure that they can access services empowering them to become happy, healthy, and self-sufficient. The organization started out as a grassroots initiative in 2008 with the goal of overcoming these obstacles. Since then, they have been a beacon for those who are victims of domestic violence but come across a language barrier when seeking help.

While they most commonly deal with domestic violence, their services are also extended to sexual violence, human trafficking, harassment, child abuse, hate crimes, or any violence that may cause trauma.

But now, the LIVE Center is doing even more to build trust with clients. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately been affecting the Latino community in Virginia. This has forced LIVE Center to go a more virtual route with some of its services, through things like their Facebook page. But more than that, they have been stepping up to an increased need of help that is beyond domestic violence.

One of the ways they’ve been active during the pandemic has been supplying food to clients experiencing food shortages. According to Telepman, LIVE Center saw the need arise around March, and they have since started a food pantry consisting of culturally appropriate non-perishable food items.

Elvira De la Cruz, CEO and senior advocate of LIVE Center, made a point that the items donated to the food pantry should be culturally appropriate, or the instructions need to be in Spanish.

De la Cruz recalled a moment years ago when another shelter asked for her assistance with a Spanish-speaking client. “When I went to talk with this lady and talk with the people in the shelter, they were surprised that this lady was saying that they were not providing food,” she said. After looking into the situation, De la Cruz soon found the problem.

“What I find out is they are providing food, and in the shelter she even had a cabinet with her name labeled on it, but when we opened it there were a lot of microwavable foods,” she said. “Nobody took the time to explain to this lady that that was food and they can prepare that, because we as Latinos, especially this lady that I’m talking about… make it from scratch. And when she was going to the kitchen and opened the cabinet, she only saw boxes.”

That is why LIVE Center feels it is so important to get culturally appropriate foods. De la Cruz said that it’s a great feeling to have someone come to a pantry and see something that they’re comfortable with. “It’s not just giving food to the bellies, it’s also feeding the souls,” she said.

Items that would be beneficial include, but are not limited to: Beans, rice, Maseca, seasonings, adobo, and sofrito.

LIVE Center has also been helping Latino people who have been financially impacted due to the pandemic through a new financial assistance program that started between May and June. The funds provided through this program are separate from the assistance given to victims of domestic violence.

In addition to all of the services that they are now providing, LIVE Center has also been collaborating with other organizations, working earlier this year with Diversity Thrift’s Viva! RVA! Food Drive. LIVE Center is now looking to help again in a second food drive.

They are also collaborating with Sylvia’s Sisters, whose mission is to provide quality feminine hygiene products to disadvantaged girls and women. LIVE Center has partnered with them to help supply feminine products, including pads, liners, and tampons, to disadvantaged people in the Latino community.

“Period products cost money, and if people are struggling for food, they’re definitely also struggling to buy expensive things like tampons and pads,” Telepman said. “But that’s an essential item, just as food is, because every woman gets her period.”

LIVE Center has been putting stickers inside these feminine hygiene products. “These stickers have our helpline and then the statewide helpline, and then a little blurb about how if you or someone you know needs help or is in a violent situation, please call — in both English and Spanish,” Telepman explained. “We put them in the package themselves so they’re not displayed right when you see the bag, in case a victim is taking them home in the house where she lives with her abuser. We don’t want the abuser to know that she’s trying to get out of the situation.”

With all of these new services that LIVE Center is providing, the collaborations with Diversity and Silvia’s Sisters, as well as a huge influx in calls reporting domestic violence LIVE Center has actively been looking for more volunteers.

De la Cruz said while they would happily take any volunteers for indirect work, what LIVE Center really needs are bilingual and bicultural volunteers to help victims of domestic violence.

“Advocates here and the helpline are taking more hours working with those clients. I need more people to answer the phone. My accountant is running more checks, so that costs more,” she said. “We are so happy to have made this work for our community, but also we need to increase the bilingual staff here, and we need to increase the operation.”

There are three levels of volunteers, each with their own free training that LIVE Center will provide that is standard across Virginia. The first level volunteers are people that would help around the office and help victims of domestic violence indirectly. This level requires minimal training, but the next two require significantly more.

“The extra training is needed because in order to deal with a domestic violence case and understand all of that trauma… you need to learn about domestic violence — different types of violence, and what that is,” Telepman said.

Volunteers with the proper training can partake in a program called “defensores comunitarios,” or “community advocates,” in which trained members of the Latino community are then able to empower each other from within to better serve victims of violence.

“They’ll take our training and then they’ll go out in the community and talk about our services. [That way], they’ll be able to help maybe their friend, or their family member, or a mutual friend overcome their obstacles and develop a safety plan,” Telepman explained.  “We’re trying to distribute our knowledge and our resources throughout our community, not be selfish and restricted to just, ‘you have to come to our organization.’ We want everyone to be able to know how to overcome their own issues.”

De la Cruz stressed that it’s very important for these high-level volunteers to be both bilingual and bicultural, so that no one seeking help ever has to hear “sorry, I don’t speak Spanish” again.

“We have opportunities for everybody,” De la Cruz said. “We have volunteers that are just English speakers… but for [those who are] in touch with clients directly, we want people that are bilingual, that can speak the language, and bicultural.”

Level three volunteers can help with answering the phone and helping victims. There are some volunteers available to take the overflow of calls, but LIVE Center could use the extra help, especially since they plan to expand their availability by phone.

“Right now we have our helpline operating Monday through Friday during business hours, because we only have three people on our staff to answer the phone,” said Telepman. “But we are expanding that into a 24-7 hotline, because we have seen a need. We have seen people call after hours, we have seen people call on the weekends, and we don’t want these calls to go to waste. We don’t want an emergency to be happening and not be able to respond appropriately.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic violence, please call (804) 658-3341.

All Photos via Latinos In Virginia Empowerment Center

Schools, Nonprofits Hustle To Feed Over Half Million VA Students

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Richmond school bus driver Tyrone McBride is still driving a big, yellow bus through Richmond neighborhoods, but these days, he’s transporting boxes of food for kids in need.

“It gets me out of the house,” said McBride, who has been a school bus driver for 18 years, “and you know, you’re doing a great deed and helping people out.” 

More than a week has passed since Gov. Ralph Northam announced students will not return to school this academic year, and volunteers are still working to feed the 590,000 children in Virginia eligible for free or reduced lunches who were ordered to remain home during the coronavirus pandemic. Schools have been closed since March 16, though students were originally slated to return by March 27. 

Whitcomb Court resident Simone Sanders said her children are now eating at home during the day, but she didn’t receive an increase in food stamps. One child is disabled, which prevents Sanders from being able to work.

“It’s affecting us bad, especially in the projects, and there’s nothing for the kids to do all day,” Sanders said. “And then you have to worry about your child just being outside getting shot.”

Sanders said she’s grateful for the food from Richmond Public Schools, and says she occasionally gives food to neighborhood kids who say they’re hungry.

A yellow school bus full of food parks near a corner in Whitcomb court. Photo by Hannah Eason

The Richmond Public Schools meal distribution program, like others around the state, continues to evolve during the coronavirus pandemic that caused a surge of Virginians to file for unemployment. Almost 46,300 Virginians filed for unemployment between March 15 and March 21. The previous week 2,706 people filed an unemployment claim, according to the Virginia Employment Commission.

The program started with 10 school sites, and has since grown into at least 43 sites throughout the community and 10 school sites.

Erin Stanley, director of family engagement at Richmond Public Schools, said volunteers, bus drivers, and the district’s nutrition staff have made the efforts possible. Volunteers were using personal vehicles to drop off food, but RPS decided that school buses would better suit the cause.

“We did that for a couple of reasons,” Stanley said. “One, so we can get more food out, and two, because school buses are a bit more well known and probably more trusted than individual volunteers going in with their personal vehicles.”

Plastic bags filled with milk cartons, sandwiches, apples and snacks are handed out in neighborhoods found on the Richmond Public Schools’ website. School distribution sites are open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and neighborhood times vary by location. Any student in the school district can use the program, Stanley said.

Volunteer Natalie Newfield said many families she gave meals to lost jobs in the restaurant industry.

 “They’re changing the way they do deliveries, which is amazing,” Newfield said. “Every day you give them a count. If they need more food, the next day, all of a sudden your bus has more food. It’s incredible.”

Statewide efforts to feed children in Virginia

When schools closed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture activated the Summer Meals Program, which funds public schools and local organizations to serve breakfast and lunch during the summer.

Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, pressed the USDA to change its policy which required parents to have their child with them when picking up food.

Roem said it was difficult for a Prince William County mother to access food for her two children. Her daughter has an immune system deficiency caused by recent cancer treatments, making her susceptible to the COVID-19 virus.

“When you’re talking about a seven-year-old with cancer, we have to really evaluate what is it that our policy is trying to prevent that is more important than feeding a child with cancer,” Roem said.

Roem said she was able to bring groceries to the family, who live in the representative’s district. As they carried bags of food inside, Roem said the mother told her children, “We’re eating tonight.”

“I fought with the USDA for a full week and won a major, major victory for kids throughout Virginia and across the country, and especially immunocompromised kids, to make sure that they stay safe, that they stay home,” Roem said.

The USDA waived the restriction last week, and states can now choose to waive the in-person policy for students to receive food.

School hallways are empty at George Wythe High School, but several volunteers are handing out food and educational packets to Richmond Public School students in the cafeteria. Photo by Hannah Eason

No Kid Hungry, a national campaign launched by nonprofit Share Our Strength, is offering emergency grants to local school divisions and organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grants can help people who are trying to make meal distribution possible, but may lack the equipment necessary to feed children outside of a school setting. 

Sarah Steely, senior program manager at No Kid Hungry Virginia, said the grants can fund necessities like vehicles, gas, coolers, and equipment to keep food safe during distribution.

“Those might not be resources that folks already have, because those aren’t service models that were expected of them before,” Steely said, “so we’re here to support community organizations and school divisions as they figure out what it is they need to distribute to kids.”

The organization works with YMCAs, childcare centers, libraries, and all 133 of Virginia’s public school divisions.

The organization recently activated their texting hotline for those unsure of where their next meal is coming from: text “FOOD” to 877-877. The hotline is generally used during the summer months, but was reactivated to combat food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Steely called the hotline “a tool in a bigger toolbox of resources” and encouraged families to contact their local school board for updated information about their locality.

“They count on that as a primary source of nutrition, so with schools closed, we want to make sure that the students who are accessing meals at school are now accessing those meals at home,” Steely said.

Written by Hannah Eason, Capital News Service. Top Photo: From left, volunteer Robert Morris, volunteer Keith Washington, volunteer Vanessa Mauskapf, bus driver Starlette Rowland and bus driver Tyrone McBride hand out food near Hotchkiss Field. Photo by Hannah Eason.

Working To Keep Kids Fed During Coronavirus

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From public school systems to charitable organizations, a variety of groups are working together to make sure that children facing food insecurity still get healthy meals while schools around the state remain closed.

On March 13, while declaring a state of emergency amid concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Ralph Northam announced the closure of all public schools from March 16 through March 27. Several Central Virginia school districts, including Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, and Goochland, have since extended the closure into mid-April.

Public schools may be closed, but food insecurity in school-aged children remains a concern, especially within the city of Richmond. Educational institutions play a vital role in providing meals for food-insecure students, and within Richmond Public Schools, over 20 percent of students experience food insecurity at some point during the 2017 school year (the most recent year for which data is available), according to BeHealthyRVA.org. 

In order to ensure that a significant portion of the area’s schoolchildren do not go hungry, the central Virginia community has come together during the coronavirus pandemic to provide for the youth. Here’s what’s happening in various school districts in the area to get meals to kids.

Richmond

Beginning Monday, March 16, Richmond Public Schools began distributing meals to RPS students and their families at 20 different school sites around the city. Food is distributed at these sites Monday through Friday, from 9:30am – 12:30pm. The full list of schools providing food distribution centers can be found below:

  • Armstrong High School, 2300 Cool Ln, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Binford Middle School, 1701 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23220
  • Blackwell Elementary School, 300 East 15th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Boushall Middle School, 3400 Hopkins Rd, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Broad Rock Elementary School, 4615 Ferguson Ln, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Chimborazo Elementary School, 3000 E Marshall St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Fisher Elementary School, 3701 Garden Rd, Richmond, VA 23235
  • Francis Elementary School, 5146 Snead Rd, Richmond, VA 23224
  • George Mason Elementary School, 813 N 28th St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Ginter Park Elementary School, 3817 Chamberlayne Ave, Richmond, VA 23227
  • Greene Elementary School, 1745 Catalina Dr, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Henderson Middle School, 4319 Old Brook Rd, Richmond, VA 23227
  • Huguenot High School, 7945 Forest Hill Ave, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Lucille Brown Middle School, 6300 Jahnke Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Miles Jones Elementary School, 200 Beaufont Hills Dr, Richmond, VA 23225
  • MLK Middle School, 1000 Mosby St, Richmond, VA 23223
  • Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School, 2409 Webber Ave, Richmond, VA 23224
  • Reid Elementary School, 1301 Whitehead Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
  • Summer Hill Preschool, 2717 Alexander Ave, Richmond, VA 23234
  • Wythe High School, 4314 Crutchfield St, Richmond, VA 23225

Henrico County

Henrico County Public Schools have followed the same path. Starting Tuesday, March 17, they created a “grab and go” meal distribution plan, allowing students and others under the age of 18 (accompanied by a parent) to pick up free breakfasts and lunches from 11 a.m.-noon on weekdays at eight different sites around the county. These have since grown to 14 different sites, beginning last Thursday. Here is a full list of the sites:

  • Fairfield Middle School, 5121 Nine Mile Road, Henrico, Va. 23223
  • Glen Lea Elementary School, 3909 Austin Ave., Henrico, Va. 23222
  • Hermitage High School, 8301 Hungary Spring Road, Henrico, Va. 23228
  • Highland Springs Elementary School, 600 Pleasant St., Highland Springs, Va. 23075
  • Quioccasin Middle School, 9400 Quioccasin Road, Henrico, Va. 23238
  • Henrico Volunteer Rescue Squad 31, 5301 Huntsman Road, Sandston, Va. 23150
  • Campus of Virginia Randolph, 2204 Mountain Road, Glen Allen, Va. 23060
  • Henrico High School, 302 Azalea Ave., Henrico, Va. 23227
  • Longan Elementary School, 9200 Mapleview Ave., Henrico, Va. 23294
  • Montrose Elementary School, 2820 Williamsburg Road, Henrico, Va. 23231
  • Ratcliffe Elementary School, 2901 Thalen St., Henrico, Va. 23223
  • Ridge Elementary School, 8910 Three Chopt Road, Henrico, Va. 23229
  • Sandston Elementary School, 7 Naglee Ave., Sandston, Va. 23150

Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County Public Schools has also established a free meal distribution program for students. A lunch and the next morning’s breakfast are provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Student and a parent or guardian must both be present to pick up meals. Meals are available between 11am-12pm at 33 different locations; for the full list, click here.

Hanover County

Hanover County Public Schools began distributing pre-packaged lunch kits to children aged 18 or younger on Monday, March 16. Lunch kits are served on a first-come first-served basis between 11am and 1pm Monday through Friday while supplies last at John M. Gandy Elementary School, located at 201 Archie Cannon Drive in Ashland, and Mechanicsville Elementary School, located at 7425 Mechanicsville Elementary Drive in Mechanicsville.

School systems aren’t the only ones pitching in, though. Indian restaurant India K’ Raja, which is located in the West End, offered to provide free lunch buffet to students during the initial closure period. Of course, since then, due to limits on public gatherings, India K’Raja has, like many restaurants, moved to takeout and delivery orders only. Give them a call at (804)965-6345 to find out if the program is still in place.

The Chesterfield Food Bank will also provide free meals to students through a drive-thru service operating on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm-6:30pm at their Chesterfield location, located at 12211 Iron Bridge Road.

During the coronavirus outbreak, Powhatan-based nonprofit Backpacks of Love have held true to their mission of ensuring access to food for kids in Powhatan, Buckingham, Cumberland, Goochland, Amelia, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties, working with the Powhatan County School Board to get students a week’s worth of food as school closings began, and coordinating deliveries of two weeks of additional food to Powhatan students. They’re working to do more, and are in need of donations — to find out how you can help, go to their website.

Ledbury has also established a fund called Together Forward, which donates a meal to Building a Better RPS and Henrico County Public Schools for every $100 spent. Ledbury CEO Paul Trible noted that since shopping for new clothes isn’t a priority right now, this is a way to do so while also contributing positively to the current efforts.

If you’re in a position to volunteer to help with any of these efforts, please consider doing so — all of these organizations need help to achieve their goals of keeping kids fed while school remains closed indefinitely.

Top Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rachael Ray Windy City Harvest Lunch, Public Domain, via Wikimedia

“We Have An Unhealthy Relationship With Food In This World”

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Artist and Quail Bell Press co-founder Christine Sloan Stoddard’s latest book, Force Fed, views the global issue of food insecurity and wealth disparity through an intensely personal lens.

There’s a new book out on the shelves by Christine Sloan Stoddard, the interdisciplinary artist and writer who founded the feminist publication Quail Bell Magazine here in Richmond as a VCUarts undergraduate student. Force Fed is a fictional one-sided correspondence between two sisters, presented through a short series of letters and napkin poems that confront their unequal burdens suffered in childhood.

The book explores food insecurity as a catalyst of familial trauma, an intimate dimension of the global issue that often gets overlooked in media because it happens behind closed doors. Like all trauma, it isn’t something that’s easy to talk about — nor is it easy to read about. Force Fed is only 24 pages long (so you have no excuse not to read it), but it’s written with a poignancy that is disproportionately heavier than the physical weight of the book.

The premise of Force Fed was inspired by experiences and observations throughout Stoddard’s entire life. Born and raised in Arlington, Virginia, she remembers when D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood had not even one full-sized supermarket. “Yet you could see the U.S Capitol — a clear symbol of power and wealth — from there, from the food desert,” says Stoddard. “We have an unhealthy relationship with food in this world.”

During her final year of undergraduate studies at VCU, she and an engineering classmate at the da Vinci Center won the 2012 Energy Efficient Sprint Challenge with a project uncovering how much food VCU’s Shafer Court Dining Center threw away each day. Meanwhile, just a short walk away, Stoddard was serving as an Americorps volunteer in a first grade classroom at Carver Elementary, located in a predominantly black neighborhood where food insecurity was and still is a pervasive issue.

“My first graders would come to school hungry, so the teacher I assisted always kept a stash of snack bars. At the same time, VCU’s Shafer threw away so much food every single day,” says Stoddard. “I hope that amount, which I’d have to look up, has long since decreased, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it remained the same.”

In 2018, Stoddard visited her mother’s home country, El Salvador, for the first time. “I was reminded of the intentional disparity that exists,” she says. “There are the lucky few — the fabled 14 families — who live on haciendas and eat lavish meals while others starve. Yet the earth there is quite fertile, and the ecosystem is very lush. The land can provide as much food as people need.”

“In all of these cases, a true lack of food isn’t really the issue,” says Stoddard. “People are denied food because those in power want to deny them, and it’s one of the ways in which they maintain power.” It’s evident that Stoddard’s realizations about the relationship between food and power heavily inspired the characterization of the sisters’ mother in Force Fed, who weaponizes food in her household as a method to abuse and control her daughters — one of them more than the other.

There are only two mentions of specific locations in Force Fed: a residential Cary Street address in Richmond, and PS 44 in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. The urban setting of the story is non-specific.

“I didn’t need readers to know where the sisters grew up, because this story could happen anywhere,” says Stoddard. “The location isn’t real, it’s in my head. My fictional world merges all of the places I have lived or spent significant time: NoVa, Washington D.C., Richmond, Baltimore, Southern Maryland, New York City, Miami, Iowa, and Glasgow, Scotland.”

Stoddard continued to run Quail Bell Press & Productions after moving to Northern Virginia in 2014. She relocated to New York City in 2016 and currently lives in Brooklyn, but still remains active in running Quail Bell along with Gretchen Gales, a fellow VCU alumna and Virginia native.

In the time since earning a film degree and B.A. in English from VCU and a certificate in Product Innovation from the da Vinci Center, Stoddard has been steadily making additions to her resume and artist’s portfolio. During the summer of 2017, she was the artist-in-residence at Annmarie Sculpture Garden-Smithsonian affiliate. Her work has appeared in Bustle, Marie Claire, The Huffington Post, the New York Transit Museum, the Queens Museum, and the Poe Museum, just to name a few.

Christine Sloan Stoddard. Photo via Facebook

2019 was a banner year for Stoddard. In addition to publishing Force Fed, she earned her M.F.A. in Digital & Interdisciplinary Art Practice from The City College of New York-CUNY in Harlem, completed her residency as the first-ever artist-in-residence at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House in Manhattan, and made her debut at the Kennedy Center. She is currently the artist-in-residence at Heartshare Human Services of New York, and curates public programs for the Art Deco Society of New York.

While currently New York-based, Stoddard maintains a strong relationship with Richmond. “I was a Space Grant resident at VCUarts Anderson Gallery through July and August of 2019, so I haunted the city last summer,” she says. “More recently, I celebrated my 2019 poetry and photography book, Belladonna Magic, at Brew Ho-Ho, an annual holiday party and book signing event that Chop Suey Books hosts at Hardywood.”

Force Fed is the third book Stoddard has released through Quail Bell Press & Productions, along with Things Mother Said To Me During Puberty and My Centaur The Beloved. She’s authored and/or illustrated a number of other books, the complete list of which can be found on her website. Force Fed is available for purchase on Amazon, Blurb, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s Books, among other platforms.

Quail Bell Magazine is still alive and well, continuing to challenge the gap between literary and journalistic worlds by merging “The Real” and “The Unreal” via its commitment to an overarching theme of “the imaginary, nostalgic, and otherworldly.” “We are willing to play with those divisions,” says Stoddard. “It’s a little tongue-in-cheek.”

The Quail Bell Crew is a self-described “team of fairy punks who are citizens of the world” and consists of kick-ass, powerhouse intersectional feminists like Stoddard herself. Her significant contributions to the feminist literary community of the River City have continued to stand the test of both time and distance.

Top Image via worldofchristinesloanstoddard.com

Farms Feed Food Banks to Fight Hunger

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Today, many contributions to food banks are not rejects from retail but fresh-picked from local farms. The farm-to-food-bank movement is helping fight hunger in Virginia, where 10% of the population is food-insecure.

Lettuce, turnips and beets — oh my! Vegetables and flowers sprout side by side in a bountiful garden in Northside Richmond. But the harvest is not going to a grocery store or market stand. Instead, all of the crops will be donated to local food banks so low-income communities have access to fresh foods.

The Kroger Community Kitchen Garden, situated within Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, is a major contributor to Feed More, the parent organization for food banks and other agencies fighting hunger in 34 counties and cities in Central Virginia.

In the past, food banks relied on nonperishable donations from supermarkets and other businesses. Today, many of the contributions are not rejects from retail but fresh picked from local farms.

Farm-to-food-bank programs bring healthier options to people facing “food insecurity” — living without means or access to nutritious food. Such programs also offer producers an alternative market for the fruit and vegetables they have grown.

A national organization called Feeding America partners with food banks across the state, including Feed More in Richmond and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank in Charlottesville, to create a network of hunger relief. Annie Andrews, director of operations at Feed More, said the movement has redefined the support food banks can provide for struggling communities.

“Ten, 15 years ago, food banks were reliant on shelf stable product; you looked at it as a pantry. We’ve absolutely converted to fresh and perishable food,” Andrews said.

The need for food is not solved by a corner store that sells chips and hot dogs. Farm-to-food-bank programs aim to supply better quality food that doesn’t just fill hungry bellies but also provides nutrition to prevent health problems.

Last year, Feed More received nearly $45 million in donated food — almost 30 million pounds of groceries. While retailers contributed more than 60%, about 12% came directly from growers. Produce accounted for 29% of all donated food.

Greg Knight, food sourcing manager for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, said most people who rely on food banks are not unemployed but rather underemployed. Often, they must choose between which basic needs they can afford, he said.

“We hear from clients that sometimes they have to make decisions between ‘Is it going to be gasoline today, or will it be groceries? Will it be the medication that my son or daughter needs, or will it be groceries or the electric bill?’” Knight said.

“There’s not enough funds to cover the immediate basic needs — so that’s where we step in. At least we can provide a good supplemental box of food that will then be nutritious and alleviate some of the other pressures.”

The state and federal governments have encouraged farmers to help out.

In 2016, Virginia instituted a tax credit as an incentive for farmers to donate crops to regional, nonprofit food banks. In exchange for the donation, farmers receive a 30% tax credit equal to the market value up to $5,000 yearly.

Knight said the tax credit is a great way to support farmers and provide food for those in need.

“What I’m paying for the box is only a portion of what the farmer would get at market. So he can take the difference between the two — market price and what I’m paying — and that difference then becomes a donation for him,” Knight said.

On the national level, Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to allocate $867 billion in subsidies over the next 10 years to support farmers harmed by fluctuating markets or poor harvests. The food purchased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from farmers is often resold to food banks like Feed More at a reduced cost.

Community plants seeds for change

The USDA reported that since 2012, about 10% of households in Virginia qualified as “food insecure.” Andrews said the definition of that term is constantly evolving and varies by area.

In a densely populated urban area, she said, it means “there are no grocery stores within a mile.” But in a rural area, food insecurity (or a “food desert”) means “there’s not a grocery store within 10 miles,” Andrews added.

“The gentrification of cities coming into play and people moving into the suburbs — that’s where you’re kind of pushing some of that working poor out,” Andrews said. She said Feed More is seeing a rising need for help in the suburbs — “what you wouldn’t think of as a food insecurity area.”

The Kroger Community Kitchen Garden at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and Shalom Farms in Midlothian are among the biggest farm donors to Feed More.

Laurel Matthew, senior horticulturist at Lewis Ginter, oversees the community garden and decides what to grow in collaboration with Feed More.

“We have six varieties of summer squash. We have four varieties of eggplant. Lettuce, beans, peas, you name it — we’re trying to get it in the ground,” Matthew said.

The Kroger Community Kitchen Garden is an urban gardening program that has harvested and donated over 50,000 pounds of produce to Feed More since it began in 2009.

The community garden is one-third acre, funded in part by Kroger Mid-Atlantic under the company’s “Zero Hunger | Zero Waste” initiative. A volunteer base of 700 worked last year with on-staff horticulturalists to practice organic management of the garden and sustain a healthy harvest for the food bank.

Food banks tackle food-related health disparities

Feed More’s agency network involves almost 300 nonprofit organizations such as soup kitchens and emergency shelters. Healthy Harvest Food Bank joined the network in 2010 and last year became Feed More’s first Partner Distribution Organization, which aims to distribute food across 24 of Virginia’s rural agencies. The agency network distributed 19.3 million pounds of food during the past fiscal year.

Healthy Harvest Food Bank serves 12,000 people every month through 25 locations across six counties. In 2012, the food bank conducted a survey and found that 32% of its clients had diabetes.

The food bank partnered with Northern Neck-Middlesex Free Health Clinic and Virginia Cooperative Extension to begin a Healthy Food Pharmacy to teach clients with Type 2 diabetes how to prepare flavorful, nutritious meals to combat health issues. Participants in the eight-week class on average lowered their blood pressure by 17% and low-density lipoproteins cholesterol by 26%. (LDL is considered “bad” cholesterol because of its artery-clogging properties.)

Mark Kleinschmidt, president and CEO of Healthy Harvest Food Bank, said the Northern Neck and Upper Middle Peninsula region suffers from a culture of genetics and a lack of resources to escape the health crisis trap.

“We got a Food Lion and a Walmart, and there’s not that healthy options to eat at whatsoever,” Kleinschmidt said.

He said people want to eat healthy foods but often can’t.

“For one, it’s not available. And two, it’s a cost issue,” Kleinschmidt said. “I think there is always going to be this issue. The Northern Neck will never be big enough to have a Kroger or a Harris Teeter or a Wegman that does have healthier options.”

Legislation to create the Virginia Grocery Investment Program and Fund was introduced to the General Assembly this session. It aimed to provide financial incentives for grocery stores to expand in food deserts.

After passing unanimously in the Senate, the bill died in the House of Delegates. A similar House bill was killed in a House subcommittee early in the session.

Food banks rescue food from waste

According to the USDA, 30-40% of food is wasted in the U.S. annually. Grocery chains such as Lidl have joined the movement against food waste by selling 10-pound crates of “ugly” produce for $2. Food banks are incorporating the “ugly food” movement into their means of sourcing quality food for people living in food insecure areas.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Cooperative was created by Feeding America and stretches from New England to Virginia, providing nearly 1.5 million pounds of produce to food banks each month. The cooperative works to minimize food waste by purchasing “ugly,” rejected food at a large produce market. That produce is then sold back to a network of 23 food banks, including Feed More, for a reduced price.

Andrews said the rescued, unsold produce purchased from large companies along the East Coast saves the stores money, reduces food waste and increases food bank access to resources.

“We offer the opportunity for [grocery stores] not to have an increased trash bill and to be able to do something good with the things that they aren’t able to use and sell,” Andrews said.

By Kathleen Shaw and Corrine Fizer, Capital News Service. Top photo: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s Kroger Community Garden, by Kathleen Shaw