Community
Tricycle Urban Ag Taken Over by Enrichmond
Champions of urban agriculture and green spaces have had to throw in the trowel after delays in funding.
I’ve always called it Tricycle Garden rather than Tricycle Urban Ag for the obvious reason of the large gardens operated in Manchester and Church Hill. It’s served as an oasis of green and source of food in the heart of the city. The gardens operated in two food deserts and hopefully, Enrichmond will keep them in operation for a long time to come.
Tricycle Urban Ag is transferring the care of its urban agriculture, gardens, and orchard properties to Enrichmond in a shift approved by both boards on Thursday, February 20.
Two of Tricycle’s Urban Ag Fellowship graduates will partner with Enrichmond and continue farming Tricycle’s urban farm in Manchester. Enrichmond will take over the site assets and lease for the next year.
After the transition of these operations to Enrichmond, Tricycle will discontinue operations.
Tricycle has a history of generous support from the community, and most of those funds went toward programmatic support of its food access and urban ag fellowship programs. Recently, Tricycle has faced funding delays that have lowered operating reserves. Because of these factors, Tricycle is working with Enrichmond and other nonprofits to preserve the best of our work.
Tricycle Urban Ag has been growing the field of urban agriculture and green spaces in Richmond for more than a decade. With the support of our partners, volunteers, urban ag fellows, funders, staff and board of directors, we have championed regenerative urban farming and began to cultivate a new generation of farmers to feed Richmonders. “Continued stewardship of Tricycle’s urban farms as valuable community green space was one of our top priorities in this transition. We reached out to Enrichmond because of their track record in this area. They share a vision for the sites we enthusiastically support,” said Hunter Hopcroft, Board Chair, Tricycle Urban Ag.
“Enrichmond has been with Tricycle since its inception. We continued our support by being a fan and advocate during its more than a decade of positive community impact. We are committed to working with Tricycle staff and board members, graduates and supporters as we move forward preserving the organization’s amazing work,” said John Sydnor, Executive Director, Enrichmond.


