RICHMOND, Va.–Whole Foods Market and West Broad Village opened Whole Foods Market Village Garden, Whole Foods Market’s first onsite field-to-store community garden. The 37,000-square foot garden, known as the Village Garden, is located in West Broad Village. Pending final permitting, the Village Garden will supply fresh and seasonal produce to be sold in the Short Pump Whole Foods Market store and incorporated into prepared dishes and salad-bar options.
“More customers are becoming vocal about wanting to know the origin of their produce,” said Joey Herndon, store team leader of Whole Foods Market at Short Pump. “At Whole Foods Market, we’re always looking to partner with local farmers, but the Village Garden is something very new for us. We’re excited to see our customers reap the benefits of the Village Garden.”
The Village Garden was constructed with recycled materials on land donated by Markel-Eagle Partners LLC, the management entity that is a large investor in and operates West Broad Village. The garden is currently almost 1 acre in size, and Whole Foods Market has future plans of expanding the plot to as many as six acres, which will make it the largest Whole Foods Market-affiliated community garden in the nation.
The garden was built and will be maintained by the local Richmond organization, Backyard Farmer, as well as Whole Foods Market employees, and will include seven production beds, a fruit orchard and grape vines that are expected to mature by mid-July of this year. The Village Garden will be home to an assortment of produce year-round. Squash, tomatoes, peppers and melons will be planted first, along with fruit trees like hardy kiwi, fig, persimmon, pear and plum. The Village Garden also will be home to a number of berry bushes, including blueberry, blackberry and raspberry. A portion of what’s grown in the garden will be donated to the Central Virginia Food Bank.
In advance of the garden opening, several events will be held to get the community excited and involved: June 23 will be a Whole Foods Market 5% Day, where 5 percent of that day’s net sales will be donated to Slow Food Richmond; there will be a complimentary film screening of the movie FRESH June 25, a documentary exposing today’s unresolved health and environmental issues; and Saturday, June 26, will be the Village Garden’s public grand opening, inviting area residents to visit the new space, enjoy complimentary garden tours, kids’ activities, live music by the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra and more.