Times-Dispatch Mobile Newsroom heads to East End [Video]

On a humid morning before the Fourth of July holiday, Reynolds Community College Director of Communications Joe Schilling took me on a tour of The Kitchens at Reynolds, the striking glass-and-steel building that overlooks the roundabout at Nine Mile Road and North 25th Street in Richmond’s East End.

The 25,000-square-foot hub of the Reynolds culinary arts, hospitality and small-business entrepreneurship programs opened a few years ago amid the turmoil of COVID-19, when so much of normal life came to a halt.

During my visit, workspaces were full of buzzing students and neat stacks of stainless-steel steam table pans that I recognized from my high school days working at my uncle’s restaurant. (I waited tables — and wisely left the cooking to others.)

The center is an appropriate setting for our latest Mobile Newsroom, an initiative launched in May to embed Richmond Times-Dispatch journalists in neighborhoods and connect with residents in historically underserved parts of the community.

Such outreach efforts …