In 2019, Desiree Thompson and Kelly McCarthy met and shared a studio space with three practitioners in West Philly. We both structured our business on a sliding scale, loved herbs and we’re similarly interested in healing and economic justice. Together we noticed that there seemed to be a missing link between growers who had an abundance of herbs, and people who were excited and interested in experiencing them.
So, in winter 2020, we put together a (then) very experimental system for the redistribution of herbs, live plants, and herbal medicine.
After a survey of 90 initial Herb Hub users, we discovered several barriers that limit people’s access to herbal medicine: high costs (53%), long distances to herb stores (40%) and lack of educational resources (50%). Almost all respondents selected a combination of the previous barriers. The way we operate today is a direct reflection of the input from our community.
Our name “Philly Herb Hub (or, The Hub)” symbolizes our desire to be both a connector and a source of free information.
For us, the Hub is heart-work. We love this project simply because it exists. We don’t force it (or ourselves) to change its shape; we respond to its needs and modify how we operate based on feedback and our capacity. Our weekly meetings are touchpoints where we name and hold space for our challenges, successes, visions of the future. Most importantly, we uplift and support our friendship, and acknowledge that it is the lifeblood of our work together.
We try to not operate out of scarcity.
We try to trust that our efforts, and the efforts of our partners, will sustain the project for as long as possible.
We try to have fun! To laugh and lean into the all the sweet folks who volunteer, farm, make medicine and teach with us.
Our Philosophy
The Philly Herb Hub is a free community apothecary, currently available to Black folks in Philly. We provide free herbs and free workshops through a mutual aid network with local growers, medicine makers, and herb enthusiasts.
As organizers, the long-term sustainability of the project rests on relationships—not only with the land and the plants, but also between growers and people accessing the medicine.
We’re committed to keeping herbs and medicine accessible as a consistent practice, so that the Hub can exist as a reliable and stable resource for Black people, for as long as possible.
Since January 2021, the Philly Herb Hub has distributed 6,500 tinctures, tea blends, salves, dried single herbs, and elixirs to 550 Black Philadelphians and their communities. To do this, we’ve created a circuit of reparatory mutual aid: larger-scale farmers and growers provide dried herbs and bottled medicine to a broad community of Black herb enthusiasts, practicing herbalists, and teachers.
Providing equitable access started with building a working alternative to the ways that herbs and education are sourced and offered under capitalism. We move beyond ideology, putting anti-capitalist beliefs into practice. We encourage ourselves, and our community to slow down; to move at the speed of our own energy and capacity. We believe in the redistribution of resources as a necessity for economic and environmental justice. The Hub reduces waste by acting as a container for the overflow of farmers’ plants and medicine. We focus on relationships with, and respect for, the plants, instead of viewing them as “things” to consume. Offering free herbal medicine and free education, acknowledges everyone’s right to viable options for their health.