Community Roots Garden

Liberating the land and growing free food on occupied Pamunkey territory in so-called Northside, Richmond VA. Solidarity not charity.

vanessabolin29@icloud.com

Support Community Roots

North Side - Richmond, VA

Situated Off Barton Ave in Richmond Community Roots Garden is not a victory garden but a FREEDOM garden! Free food to free the people of Brookland Park who live in a food desert, Freedom to have organic food without the high prices at every grocery store, Freedom to grow what you want to eat... we need to clear more space of the ever invasive kudzu because we are putting in a greenhouse so we can grow all year long, and plant fruit trees and berry bushes as well...we want to see bees so we can have LOCAL honey and a flock of chickens for fresh eggs too!

Volunteer in Richmond

About the founder

Vanessa Bolin

Vanessa Bolin is an Indigenous artist, activist, street medic/ trainer and founder of the Eyes Wide Open Project, Richmond Indigenous Society, River City Medic Collective/Richmond Community Care Collective. She sits on the board for SANTOS which is dedicated to providing bail funds for the undocumented community, she is also on the board for the Virginia Network for Democracy and Environmental Rights.

She is also the founder of the Community Roots garden. She studied Paramedic Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. Vanessa served as a medic in Standing Rock ND during the No DAPL movement and in Charlottesville on August 12 traveled to Houston after Hurricane Harvey and acted as a street medic where she served and cared for the flood survivors. She establish a Mutual Aid Disaster Relief warehouse in Robenson Co after hurricane Florence and has taught street medic trainings across the country. She is deeply passionate about preserving the environment for her grandchildren and the next 7 generations.

She spends her time in multiple communities helping to build and support grassroots organizations. She works and provides training in marginalized communities educating about food sovereignty, decolonized and integrated medicine, transformative justice, environmental racism, and raises awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous Women among other topics. Believing that it is everyone’s responsibility to defend this sacred earth she sets out each day to make the world a better place and is striving to help build the world we all want to live in.

Community Roots Garden

North Side - Richmond, VA

About the founder

Vanessa Bolin

A Growing Culture - Indigenize