A Repair Cafe RVA volunteer mends clothes during a pop-up at the Richmond Public Library’s main branch.
Furniture, appliances, clothes — Jenny Kobayashi Malone is no stranger to fixing what she owns. “I was raised with repairing things. It’s always been a part of my mindset,” she says.
But as she grew up, it became apparent to her that not everyone has the skills and supplies to revive their belongings. She founded Repair Cafe RVA in 2024 to bring that knowledge to the community.
Repair Cafe RVA is a volunteer-run monthly event where residents can bring broken or worn items and get them fixed on the spot, for free, by skilled volunteers. At the August cafe, held at the main branch of the Richmond Public Library, around 50 volunteers mended clothes, soldered electronics, polished furniture and more.
Kobayashi Malone says repair cafes are one of the most achievable ways of reaching a circular economy, which stands in contrast to “take, make, waste” habits. “It also gives us a chance to rely on each other instead of corporations,” she says. Since the first cafe gathering in January 2025, the event has prevented about 3,000 pounds of items from winding up in landfills, according to Kobayashi Malone.
The first Repair Cafe took place in Amsterdam in 2009 as a free event where volunteers helped community members fix broken items rather than discard them. Today, almost 3,500 cafes worldwide follow that same model; around 200 are in the U.S.
Richmond’s Repair Cafe comes at a time when Right to Repair bills — which would require manufacturers to make parts, tools and repair information publicly available — have been introduced in all 50 states. Few, however, have passed, including two bills that failed in the Virginia General Assembly earlier this year. Rising prices and a trend toward anti-consumerism are also giving repair cafes a boost.
The cafe takes an accessible approach in several ways. In addition to being free, its locations are pop-ups, rather than operating from a fixed spot like many other cafes. Rotating through different neighborhoods helps its services reach as many people as possible.
“Because the public transit is so poor, we find that we need to come to people,” Kobayashi Malone says of the Richmond region. “We don’t want them to have to be on the bus for a couple hours just to come to this.” She also says she hopes to broaden the cafe’s reach to include more services for Spanish speakers and those without stable housing.
For Diana Harland, a volunteer who repairs sewing machines, there are plenty of things to love about the cafe — not least the chance to get her hands dirty. “I love getting up in people’s sewing machines,” Harland says. “Sometimes you open it up and you get these clods of dust, and it’s like a great dopamine hit for me.”
Getting to merge that passion with community-building is especially fulfilling, Harland says. She’s now volunteered five times, and she’s starting to recognize returning faces. “I want to help people, and I want to do it for free,” she adds.
An attendee at the May Repair Cafe, Bethany Anderson waited in the middle of the room carrying a blue chair with a loose leg. It was her second time attending a pop-up. She waited for under 20 minutes, though, as repairers get people in and out quickly.
Alongside keeping items out of landfills, the financial relief of not having to replace something is important to Anderson. “With sustainability, I always feel like the world is on fire, so this is one little thing we can do to make it feel less bad,” she says. She sees the cafe as a free and beneficial third space, she says. “Chatting with the person fixing things makes it way more fun. It’s such a cool place to meet friends, too.”
The May cafe also attracted Mayor Danny Avula, who attended with a broken lamp in hand. “All of us, as humans, should try to fix things, reuse them when we can, keep things out of landfills,” Avula says.
Within half an hour, his lamp was lit again. He says he hopes to stay connected to the cafe and adds, “This is so much of what Richmond needs.”
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