Blog

At Real Local RVA, community has always been our focus and will continue to guide our work. We encourage our community to join us in recognizing the injustice that exists within our world. Real Local rejects all forms of racism and intolerance, and supports equity and acceptance.
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We support our Black owned business members and friends and believe supporting their work is one of the most important things our community can do. Please continue reading for how you can support these Black owned businesses.

[Read more…] about Real Local RVA Supports Local Black Owned Businesses

“The Perils & Promise of Building a Regenerative Supply Chain”

with Sara Harper from Grounded Growth

Sponsored by Karen Stephens with Joyner Fine Properties

The types of organizations that make up Real Local’s membership are a diverse cross-section of the local food community. Our members consist of farmers, small local grocers, value added producers, restaurants, coffee shops, colleges, suppliers, marketers, non-profits, individuals, and small local businesses that value our work. We try to support all of our members with our focus centering around building a more sustainable and connected food system. Farmers using organic and regenerative agriculture practices are certainly a very important piece of that food system. For this month’s meeting we enjoyed hearing from Sara Harper of Grounded Growth about her journey into regenerative agriculture and her work with larger scale farms to take steps towards soil restoration and carbon sequestration. Much of the effort towards strengthening food systems becomes less relevant if we don’t take some steps to protect the Earth we inhabit. [Read more…] about Real Local RVA’s March 2020 Meeting

“A Farm to Table Panel Discussion”

moderated by Robey Martin of CBS 6 and Eat It! Virginia

Sponsored by C&F Bank

We might be biased, but we think our first meeting of 2020 was pretty great! We were thrilled to bring these five participants in local food together for a discussion on restaurant life, farming life, and local sourcing in RVA. Our panelists included: Emmanuel Baiden - private chef - Manny Eats, Barbara Hollingsworth - co-owner - Village Garden RVA, Caleb Shriver - chef/owner - Dutch & Company, Brittanny Anderson - chef/co-owner - Brenner Pass, Chairlift and Metzger Bar and Butchery, and Dominic Carpin - owner - delli Carpini Farm. [Read more…] about Real Local RVA’s February 2020 Meeting

Happy New Year RVA! The work we get to do in Richmond is pretty great, and we’re feeling thankful for our supportive local food community. Our programming works on a calendar year cycle (meetings from February to November with other events sprinkled in), and because of this we enjoy a little time each holiday season to reflect on the past year’s work. Each year we grow a little more, and strengthen our place in the community. We thought you might enjoy a quick roundup from 2019. [Read more…] about A Year in Review: Real Local RVA’s 2019

Happy New Year!

We’re wishing everyone an exciting and prosperous 2020 and looking forward to another great year in the Richmond local food scene. We’ve been busy planning some great things for this year, and the first of these is another workshop series in partnership with the Apple Cart Co. and Hatch Kitchen to help grow your food business. We hope you’ll take advantage of these three great upcoming workshops and if there are other topics you’d like to see, please let us know! All three of these workshops will take place at the Beet Cafe at Ellwood Thompson’s and are FREE for Real Local and Hatch Kitchen Members. We just ask that you register in advance. See below for all the details. [Read more…] about New Year, New Workshops!

Did you know each dollar spent at an independent business returns 3X more money to our local economy than one spent at a chain - AND 50x more than one spent at an online mega-retailer? We wanted to offer you some great ways to shop locally this holiday season, and we feel confident our list offers something for everyone on your list! Happy LOCAL shopping from all of us at Real Local RVA!

[Read more…] about 59 Ways to Shop Local This Holiday Season!