Community Learning & Connection Event Series: Speaker Panel
July 13 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Free – $15
Shalom Farms is excited to host a series of community learning and connection opportunities this season at our Northside farm. Alternating Community Circles led by The Well Collective or Speaker Panels facilitated by Union Presbyterian Seminary will be followed by a cooking demonstration with Chef Jason Muckle of CHEW preparing plenty of generous samples for folks to enjoy together.
All events will take place in our Community Pavilion at the Northside Farm, 1311 Westwood Ave, and will be offered on a sliding scale of $0-15 per person. This helps us cover the cost of compensating speakers and facilitators. Participants that would like to offer payment can do so online ahead of time, or by cash or card upon arrival.
Community Learning Session Agenda (July 13, September 14 & November 9):
10:30 Arrival and settling in. Shalom staff welcomes guests, shares agenda and introduces topic.
10:35-10:45 Opening exercise led by the Well Collective
10:45-11:15 Facilitated panel discussion
11:15-11:30 Questions, comments, community contributions.
Closing exercise led by the Well Collective11:30-noon Cooking demonstration and shared food.
Full schedule of events:
June 8- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Circle with the Well Collective
July 13- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Learning: How and why have Richmond’s neighborhoods developed over time, and how does this connect to our food system?
Panelists will talk about redlining, urban renewal efforts, annexations of neighborhoods, city planning over time and other forms of development that have shaped the city and created inequitable access to resources like healthy food. As this is a place-based discussion, panelists can offer specific details related to the nearby neighborhoods of Ginter Park, Sherwood Park and Highland park as they’re able, including information about the land Shalom farms on.
Featuring
- Jennifer Joyce, Historic Richmond
Jennie Joyce is a Richmond (Chesterfield) native who discovered her passion for preservation later in life after fleeing to NYC, earning her MA in Public History, and spending 10 years in the world of museum education. She currently serves as Preservationist and Community Outreach Manager for Historic Richmond, a local preservation and neighborhood revitalization nonprofit. Though the setting has changed, the work hasn’t as much as you would think- we shape and are shaped by the world around us, and understanding that history and how we got here is key to figuring out where we’re going next. - Emily Nyce, First Mennonite Church
Emily Hodges Nyce was born and raised in Richmond, VA, and has loved this land since. A graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, she returned to Richmond in 2017 to pursue a Master of Divinity at Union Presbyterian Seminary (2020). While here, she was swept up in the beauty of this place and sacred story. So for years, she collaboratively led the seminary and wider community together as they reinvisioned the park as Yaupon Place. Emily is now Associate Pastor at First Mennonite Church of Richmond, but will always point to her years here with Shalom Farms and Yaupon Place as a wellspring of her vocation. - Christine Luckritz Marquis, Union Presbyterian Seminary
- Regina Boone, Richmond Free Press
Regina H. Boone, a Northside Richmond native is an award-winning staff photojournalist for the Richmond Free Press. In addition to working in Richmond she was on staff at the Detroit Free Press for nearly 14 years covering politics, features, breaking news and special projects including coverage of the Flint, Mich. water crisis where one of her photos from Flint was a TIME Magazine cover becoming an iconic image of the Flint tragedy. - Chanté Holt, Urban Regional Planner with VCU
Chanté Holt was born in Virginia Beach but has called the City of Richmond home since 1996. She graduated cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science in the field of urban & regional studies in 2022. She then went on to earn a master’s in urban & regional planning from VCU in 2025. As a master’s student, Chanté held the position of Treasurer within the Urban & Regional Planning Student Association, became a two-time recipient of the Black History in the Making Award, and won the 2025 American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student Award. Chanté currently works at VCU in the field of research administration as a grant accountant, a position she has held since 2022. In her spare time, Chanté enjoys traveling, cooking, and tending to her vegetable garden.
August 10- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Circle with the Well Collective
September 14- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Learning: Land Dispossession, Displacement and Migration
Panelists will talk about land dispossession and forced migration (in Richmond, but in other parts of the world as well) and how this has shaped our food and agriculture system and created a lack of food sovereignty for many communities.
October 12- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Circle with the Well Collective
November 9- 10:30a-11:30a
Community Learning: The Future of Food and Mutual Aid
Panelists will talk about where we go from here and strategies for dismantling and rebuilding our food system in ways that offer opportunities for self-determination, as well as how community care and mutual aid can offer these opportunities and strengthen our collective access to the things we all need and deserve.
