Founder of RVA Community Fridges Taylor Scott (Photo by Jay Paul)
At 2919 North Ave., a newly painted black building is emblazoned with the words “Matchbox Mutual Aid” in white letters. Above the door is the phrase “Food is a right, not a privilege.” For the two teams behind this new venture, RVA Community Fridges and Food Not Bombs, the site will be the pillar of the work they do to feed Richmonders in need.
“We believe anyone should be able to feed themselves, regardless of their ability to pay,” says Aaron Bish, a volunteer with Food Not Bombs for nine years.
A scrappy, grassroots, volunteer-run mutual aid group with chapters nationwide, Food Not Bombs has hosted a weekly food share in downtown’s Monroe Park for decades. Last year, members were forced to relocate from the building where they worked and cooked, leaving them looking for a new space.
“We decided to reach out to other mutual aid organizations,” Bish says. “For us, being able to afford a space for ourselves [on our own] wasn’t really realistic.”
Using her apartment as an office for nearly three years, RVA Community Fridges founder Taylor Scott wasn’t necessarily looking for a building, but she had maxed out her Shockoe Bottom one-bedroom. Since placing the first refrigerator in Union Hill in January 2021, Scott and a small crew have introduced a dozen of the free-food installations throughout the city, with more in the works, in addition to advising people in the Ashland, Petersburg and Hampton Roads areas about how to start their own programs.
Located in a neighborhood considered a food desert, Matchbox Mutual Aid is reviving a space that once housed Northside Foodland, a grocery store that opened in 1986 and closed five years ago.
Aiming to launch this month, the new space will serve as a hub for both organizations, offering a place to process inventory such as donations from farms and other businesses, prepare meals for weekly food shares and stocking the fridges, and hold meetings. The groups also aim to host culinary classes, knife-sharpening demos and other events. The hope is that the centralized location will make it easier for community members and food and beverage professionals to volunteer.
“It will work a lot better to have a shared space where people can come together and cook, which is what Food Not Bombs has done for the 30 years it’s been in Richmond,” Bish says. “We’re happy that this is finally happening, and hopefully this bigger space will allow us to distribute more food.”
Mirroring the groups’ mutual aid work in the community — creating networks that can fill in the gaps through solidarity — the partnership is a natural merger of old and new movements.
Scott says they are working to transition Matchbox Mutual Aid into a nonprofit. By acquiring 501(c)(3) status, they can make the most of funding opportunities. “I hope that will solidify us with paying rent and not having to consistently fundraise [for that],” she says, adding that they could then direct the resources elsewhere. “Really just trying to figure out ways to get money from people that have it, to get it to us, to give it to people who definitely need it.”
In August, RVA Community Fridges launched a campaign on Open Collective, a platform where donors can give monthly while also choosing where their funds are allocated — rent, classes, food.
“To be like, ‘Let’s band together as a community and help each other,’ I think that’s something Food Not Bombs and RVA Community Fridges stand on,” Scott says. “Food is a right and not a privilege, and everyone should have that. Let’s get this food to the people, that’s the goal.”
