MEMBER FOCUS: Hannah Quigley
Hannah Quigley is a public health professional hailing from Wayne County, North Carolina. She’s passionate about increasing healthy food access in disenfranchised communities and currently works as a Food Access Specialist for the Richmond and Henrico Health District. Recently, we sat down with Hannah to learn more about her background and experience as a member of Common House Richmond.
On finding Richmond:
It’s my first time ever living out of the state of North Carolina! I was dragged here (just kidding). I did move with my spouse for him to do his medical residency, but Richmond was high on my list because we'd visited here for a couple of bike polo tournaments. Once we found Alamo barbecue, we were like, ‘yeah, this place is great.’
As soon as we arrived for his residency, we moved to Jackson Ward and quickly fell in love with the neighborhood…and with the river. One thing that stands out to me about the river in Richmond versus rivers in North Carolina is the actual use of it by a diversity of people — it isn’t just a segregated activity. In Richmond, you see all types of families and groups barbecuing and just hanging out, versus other cities where there might just be upper middle income, white families enjoying the river.
On discovering Common House:
My first impression was 'expensive social club,' but after visiting in person, I realized it didn't feel like that kind of social club. There are some parts of it that really remind me, honestly, of college libraries — there’s a harmony of people being together with a similar purpose and intent.
People seem to be genuinely happy here. Employees, but also people who are doing their own work here. And that's unique. There are also a lot of amenities that make Common House very appealing — like the theater room, the pool, the rooftop in general. There aren't a lot of rooftops in Richmond, and it's definitely a good one!
When you learned of Common House, did you feel like "that is a space for me?"
Yes. I actually hesitated to apply originally to Common Ground for a few reasons. I didn't really want to take a space from someone else, and I also wasn't sure if I would make use of it or fit in. I was a little nervous, but that's my own insecurity.
Since joining, I have used Common House for co-working a few times, but I definitely use it more often for meetings. The central location is great — so often people are coming from either the Southside or East End, so meeting in the middle just makes sense. Plus, it gives people an excuse to come into the city. It’s also convenient because there’s always coffee, or if people are hungry they can grab food. Unlike a restaurant (where you may feel uncomfortable not ordering something), Common House provides access to a variety of spaces — from the restaurant to the rooftop patio.
Can you tell us more about your role at the health department and your involvement in the community?
I'm the Food Access Specialist for the Richmond and Henrico Health District. Most of my focus is broader policy, systems-level change for population health and impact. I think a critical piece about policy work is that you can't just pursue policy change and forget about the direct service programming because policy takes so long, so you have to take a “both/and” approach to the work.
One example of this is my work with community garden stewards around the city to change the city code that governs community gardens on city property. As a result, people can actually sell the produce that they grow in those spaces, whereas before they weren't allowed. There's also a little bit more protection for their permits. Before, permits could be revoked for any reason, without notice, just because it's city property. Now, there's a required notice period of at least 60 days, which then also gives the garden steward enough time to rally with their city council member and potentially save it.
In addition to advocating for policy changes, I provide support to groups looking for funding opportunities, specifically people volunteering their time to do landscaping work for the city — those working on stormwater management, supporting pollinators, and bringing down the urban heat island effect, all on their own with their own money. There are also a lot of community gardens that have umbrella organizations. For example, Duron Chavis has multiple community garden sites in the city, and Fonticello Food Forest is involved in mutual aid work and food distribution out of their green space. Oftentimes, they can use help with basic needs like getting volunteers to take leftover food to community fridges throughout the city.
Then there's some really sneaky ones, like Owl Orchard — they’re tucked away in a little dead end and were the first community garden to have chickens when you weren't supposed to have chickens! The Kinfolk Community is also doing great things, like establishing community gardens in public housing communities to increase the feeling of ownership of that space among the local residents. Right now, I think people see these gardens, but don’t see themselves in it, as it's not been something that's to date been associated with public housing (so the idea that this green space with vegetables and fruit trees is for them and is theirs can feel like a foreign concept). However, it’s these organizations that are helping empower our community and investing in neighborhoods throughout the city in need of investment that haven’t received any to date.