Community Herb Cart
Launched in 2015, we created the first Herb Cart to provide free, herbal care to communities in need. Serving at a variety of locations around Atlanta, such as city parks, soup kitchens, and community centers, it offered basic first aid services. In some ways it was a simplified, stripped down version of the Herb Bus (our larger mobile clinic).
The Herb Cart was also created to be a Training Program, serving as a unique learning opportunity for folks in our apprenticeship program and for emerging herbalists. We worked to provide a safe and supportive vessel for folks to expand their clinical potential while serving our community high-quality herbs. As with all of our projects, we aim to free our work from the confines of clinical & retail walls to bring herbalism out of the shadows and place it directly into the hands of the people.
For seven years, Herbalista pushed the Cart around Atlanta, offering pop-up clinics and herbal care. We served alongside many incredible partners such as Food not Bombs, the Open Door Community, Mercy Community Church, South Bend Commons and Atlanta Resistance Medics. We served on the streets during the Black Lives Matters protests and at local farmers markets to support the growers that bring fresh healing food to our city.
In 2022, after training over 50 herbalists and sharing gallons of herbal medicine on the Atlanta streets, our sweet lil’ Cart rolled over to the Fleur + Forage Free Clinic. The Cart continued providing free herbal care and comfort under their stewardship for two years until Fleur & Forage built a new set of kits to serve from – the Apothebox.
The Herb Cart is available to use by members of the crew who have trained with the Herb Cart over the years. They can check out the Cart to use to facilitate their own pop-up clinics and community projects. Sharing the means of production is what it is all about. Contact us to learn more.
Viva la Herb Cart!
Herb Cart Model
We hope that our experience with the Herb Cart can serve as an example of what a community can do when it comes together in love of the people and the herbs. We chose a Cart for this particular clinic because it is one of the most common contraptions for pushing stuff around…carts are plentiful and convenient. And with a little customization, adding an umbrella stand, pop-out tray, and the like, a cart can become the perfect mobile clinic.
We have documented our work with the Cart and hope to show you just how exciting and fulfilling this work can be. Here you will find copies of a couple versions of our Herb Cart Manuals, complete with examples of our packing lists, clinical and dispensary forms, and loads of protocols. We also share how we ran our Training Program for the Crew.
As you tab through the resources on this page, we hope you find the support your need to help you create a mobile herb clinic of your own.
Herb Cart Service Manuals
A Guide to Starting a Mobile Herb Clinic
The Herb Cart Manual is a guide to our clinical services and is used as the training curriculum for the Herb Cart Crew. It has grown and changed over the years, reflecting our changing services as we learn and grow, responding to needs of our patients, crew and community.
Here are two different editions of the manual. One is the most recent (made in 2021) that reflected a major shift in our services during covid. This manual contains over 65 pages of information regarding how we set-up and service; how we stock the cart; examples of forms we use to track patient care and herbal inventory; basic first aid reference material; and oh-so-much-more. We’ve also added several new sections on legalities, money matters, and all that jazz.
We also are sharing our earlier 2020 edition which has information about custom compounding which was our standard practice pre-covid. The newer 2021 edition is based on pre-formulated compounds. Both have their benefits and drawbacks and depending on your own situation you might choose one or the other.
Herb Cart Service Manual 2021 Edition
HERB CART SERVICE MANUAL 2021Herb Cart Service Manual 2020
HERB CART SERVICE MANUAL 2020Herb Cart Crash Course
Herb Cart Crash Course Video
In 2022 we ran a 2 1/2 hour free school course on the Herb Cart. Squeezing our Herb Cart Training into just a few hours was a challenge, but we hope that it helps folks get a feel for the program.
The video also has chapter markings to allow you to navigate the material as desired.
Please use our 2021 Herb Cart Service Manual to follow along.
Herb Cart Service manual 2021 Edition
HERB CART SERVICE MANUAL 2021Joining the Crew
The Herb Cart Program is no longer running as a clinical training pop-up mobile clinic. But we wanted to show you the process we used to follow when staffing the Cart in case it it helpful to other folks creating community projects of their own. Fleur & Forage’s Apothebox still uses this model for their clinical program.
The Steps
- Read through the Program Requirements as described below.
- Download, complete and submit the application for the next Herb Cart Training (you can find an example of what our application looked like here).
- Complete the weekend Herb Cart Training at Herbalista HQ.
- Fulfill all other Herb Cart Program Requirements as described below.
Once you had completed the process, we welcomed folks to sign-up and serve at the various pop-up clinics we scheduled throughout the year. In the initial sessions with us, new crew members would mainly observe and assist the more experienced Herb Carters, taking on more and more responsibility as they felt comfortable.
Herb Cart Program Requirements
Before Training with us:
- You need to already have a solid foundation in herbal medicine – acquired through either program study, apprenticeship, or rigorous self-study. This is not a program for folks new to herbal medicine. If you are looking to start herbal training, please visit the Free School page.
- We use a broad range of remedies on the Cart. Please see the Herb Cart Service Manuals in the adjoining tab to see an example of the herbal Materia Medica we utilize. You must be fairly familiar with this range of herbs and their safety requirements.
- CPR and First Aid Certified within the last 2 years. This can be through any number of organizations, such as the Red Cross, American Heart Association, etc. This must be completed prior to attending an Herb Cart Weekend Training Session.
- Preferably, it is recommended one also attend a Wilderness First Aid or Wilderness First Responder course like those offered by Landmark Learning and NOLS.
The Training
- Attend an Herb Cart Weekend Training Session (Herbal First Aid, Herb Cart Protocol, etc.) Each training session is limited to between 6 and 8 participants. See example training application below.
Additional Requirements
- Volunteer at the Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic for at least two sessions to learn more about clinical safety and sanitation.
- Demonstrate dedication to learning about and practicing anti-oppressive healthcare. Applicants will be provided with a list of videos and reading assignments to complete before our training weekend.
- Demonstrate herbal competence, compassion & pragmatism as a health worker. Please note, participation in the program is at the discretion of the Herbalista Crew.
- To maintain active volunteer status you must demonstrate a continued commitment to your craft and community healthcare.
Herb Cart Training Application Form (Example)
HERB CART TRAINING APPLICATIONHerb Cart Training Program
Weekend Training Sessions
One of the requirements of joining the Herb Cart Crew is to attend a weekend training session. We offered these once or twice a year, with groups of between 6 and 8 herbalists per training. Over the years we trained-up 9 crews with over 50 herbalists participating in our Program.
Typical trainings were held over a weekend (similar to a Street Medic Training) with a Friday night orientation and then a full Saturday and Sunday workshop. Once a crew had gone through a training, they then would continue their training by volunteering at our monthly pop-up clinics and attending sessions at the Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic.
The Herb Cart Service Manual served as the main guide for the training, allowing us to talk through important concepts to working the streets as a mobile clinic. Then we would running scenarios to get a feel for the work. We aimed for this training to provide the confidence and know-how for folks to not only serve with us on the Cart, but hopefully to help folks start up clinics and community health projects of their own. Previous members of the Herb Cart Crew have indeed gone on to create free foot care clinics, herbal clinics, first aid stations and so much more.
Herb Cart Training Outline
Here is an example of a training outline that we would use in one of our Herb Cart Training Weekends.
HERB CART TRAINING OUTLINEHerb Cart Gallery
