MY NAME IS DURON CHAVIS, AND I HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN BUILDING BLACK FOOD JUSTICE IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA SINCE 2008. I am a farmer and the founder of Happily Natural Day, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the built environment for food justice and climate resiliency. I am also a co-founder of the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons, a community land trust created to redistribute land to Black and Brown food system stakeholders. The trust currently stewards 85 acres of rural and urban land in Central Virginia.
Since 2017, when adrienne maree brown published Emergent Strategy, we have used her framework to guide the iteration of our food and land justice work. The text is incorporated into the Central Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship to accentuate themes of collaboration, resilience, and the iterative nature of longitudinal social change and social transformation.
These images reflect fractals: interwoven stories of change agents and movements that intersect, evolve, and continue to shape our work toward food sovereignty in Central Virginia.
Sankofa Community Orchard is a six-acre food justice and climate resiliency demonstration site based in Richmond, VA. The orchard features more than 150 fruit trees, 20 murals depicting Black liberation themes and leaders, a 3,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system, and regenerative growing practices. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
Central Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship alumni Todd Winters and Sam Hobson stand with Duron Chavis of Happily Natural Day and Brother Q of D-Town Farms at Sankofa Community Orchard in front of a mural of John Lewis, an early urban agriculture advocate from Central Virginia. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
Duron Chavis and the Happily Natural Day team at a 60-acre parcel at Doran Road and New Market Road that features peri-urban farmland being conveyed to the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons, a community land trust built by Black food justice advocates in Central Virginia. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day.
Duron Chavis and Malik Yakini in Accra, Ghana, during the Global Food Sovereignty Mbongi, held in October 2025 and hosted by the KASI Institute. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
Sam Hobson and Ray Covington water newly planted fruit trees at Planet Rock Community Garden in January 2026 through the Central Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
Happily Natural Day Staff: Happily Natural Day staff members Olayin Cash, Sam Hobson, and John Whalen stand with Central Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship fellows Denisha Robinson and Gadoja Green while holding collard greens grown by Browntowne Farms. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
John Lewis, a co-founder of Renew Richmond, an urban agriculture nonprofit and early collaborator in food justice efforts in Central Virginia. Duron Chavis and Lewis’s early work in Richmond, Virginia, from 2012 to 2016 influenced policy and helped build urban farms and gardens across the city. PHOTO: Virginia State University
The Spring 2025 Central Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship cohort at Sankofa Community Orchard after planting persimmon and elderberry as part of an agroforestry demonstration. PHOTO: Happily Natural Day
