Timmons Group, a landscape architecture firm in Richmond, Va., provided pro bono design services to help alleviate food shortages to impoverished areas in the city. Renew Richmond envisions a community in which all members have access to fresh produce and nutrition.

When Timmons Group heard about what Renew-Richmond was planning to do, we knew that we needed to lend our design services in support of their mission and goals. To date, we have provided pro bono design services for three community garden projects here in our back yard in Richmond, Va.

The mission of the non-profit stems from the successes of the first of the three projects where we offered our services. The goal of this organization is to identify food deserts (impoverished portions) in our city and help to provide fresh, organic food sources grown within the limits of the most impoverished portions of the community. Our services included consultation and design services for the three community gardens that will contribute to food production within these deserts.

Phase one of the first community garden, located at the Jerusalem Connection Community Center, was constructed with volunteers from Hands On Richmond (Virginia) and Altria (formerly Phillip Morris). Two more gardens are slated for volunteers to build in the next few months.

RVA Farms, a commercial urban agricultural program of the nonprofit Renew Richmond, will create and operate an urban farm located on Covington Road in Richmond, Va. that grows and sells fresh organic fruits and vegetables in food deserts. Our urban farm will feature hoop houses, an outdoor demonstration garden, farm stand, solar powered drip irrigation system, storage shed, trails and environmental space a butterfly garden with intersecting pathways, and an outdoor education area and learning pavilion.

Through partnership with Richmond Economic Development and Department of Social Services, RVA Farms will provide employment training, workforce development, and community work experience for recipients of SNAP benefits and participants of the VIEW program. Community members employed by RVA Farms will in turn run independent commercial operations, which will transform RVA Farms into Richmond's first urban farm B-Corporation.

While Renew Richmond's programs serve individuals of all socio-economic backgrounds, the nonprofit's primary focus is low-income populations with increased statistical risk for nutrition related health issues such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic obesity.

Renew is confident that a holistic program focusing on the hands-on growth and consumption of nutrient dense food can repair the health and well-being of individuals and build healthier, more tightly knit communities.