How Do We Build a Food Secure New Orleans?

Lede New Orleans gathered community members to discuss solutions. Here’s what we heard.

Experts share insight on local food access challenges and solutions during a Lede New Orleans panel hosted at Grow Dat Youth Farm, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The panel included, right to left: Alec Devaprasad, Lede Fellow; Matt Taylor, executive chef at Second Harvest Food Bank’s Community Kitchen; Jonshell Johnson, education coordinator at Grow Dat Youth Farm; Terence Jackson, farmer and agriculture advocate; and Margee Green, executive director of SPROUT NOLA.(Photo by Ejaaz Mason)

Roughly 1 in 7 urban households in south Louisiana don’t have consistent access to enough healthy food to feed their family members. Yet New Orleans and south Louisiana are known worldwide as food destinations. How do we build food security for locals?

Lede New Orleans gathered food justice experts and community members at Grow Dat Youth Farm on Tuesday, April 19, for a panel and discussion exploring this question. The event included small group roundtables where participants were encouraged to discuss potential solutions to address gaps in local food access.

Much of the conversation centered on how Black and brown communities could leverage urban agriculture to increase the amount and quality of fresh food available. According to the Center for Planning Excellence, 23% of Black households in Louisiana reported not having enough food in the past week, compared with 7% of white households. Here are some of the ideas we heard.

What does a food secure New Orleans look like?

We asked community members to write down their vision for a food secure New Orleans. Here is what we heard.

• There are farmers markets in New Orleans every day in different parts of the city.
• Local small growers have a place to store and share excess harvest.
• Fruit trees are planted in the neutral ground and available for public harvest.
• Food aid is easy to access.
• Local students take nutrition and gardening courses at school.
• There are fewer big box grocery stores.
• Young people are excited to learn about growing food and nutrition.
• We have community feasts where neighbors share food.
• Families have access to a food commodities truck that stops at your door.
• Residents have access to information on where to find locally grown food and how to grow food on their own.
• Empty lots around the city are being used to grow food.
• We have events where chefs and local farmers show locals how to cook locally grown produce.
• Residents have access to reliable public transportation to get to the grocery store and farmers markets.

How do we build a food secure New Orleans?

We asked community members to write down their ideas and solutions for working toward their vision of a more food secure New Orleans. Here are some of the solutions that were put to paper.

Food Aid

• Volunteer and/or donate food consistently at a local food pantry.
• Reduce the stigma around accessing food assistance by more openly discussing local food needs and how to access food benefits.
• Increase low-barrier food distribution where people can access food without paperwork and identification.

Retail

• Support farmers markets and truck farms (like Mr. Okra!).
• Buy locally-grown or Louisiana-grown produce whenever you can.
• Create centers of exchange so that locals can access goods or foods that aren’t grown in New Orleans.
• Invest more in food distribution.
• Establish a mobile food market with a tracking app to visit New Orleans neighborhoods.
• Ban over-processed foods.

Urban Agriculture

• Visit a community garden in my area and volunteer consistently.
• Encourage community gardens to grow produce that is culturally significant to New Orleans communities.
• Submit more applications to the city’s Growing Green program, which allows the general public to lease New Orleans Redevelopment Authority property for uses such as community gardens, urban farming and pocket parks.
• Establish commercial demonstration farms in and around New Orleans where experts can teach young people, adults and policymakers about the process of urban farming.
• Plant more edible perennials.
• Support organizations like Grow Dat Youth Farm that employ and train young people in urban agriculture work.

A sticky note illustrating a local food system drawn by an event participant. (Photo by Jen Larino)

Education & Training

• Develop an easy-to-use app to help people explore in-season produce and find local farmers who are selling it.
• Introduce gardening and/or farming curriculum as part of recess or physical education courses at public elementary schools.
• Do more outreach and get more local families involved in local food systems work.
• Teach young people about where food actually comes from and reshape their relationship with agriculture.
• Provides resources and education for shoppers concerned about food safety at local markets.
• Teach young people agricultural history and reconnect with how fresh food was produced in the past.

Policy

• Engage political leaders around food access issues.
• Government subsidies for grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods.
• Subsidize the cost of local, fresh food for residents in low-income communities.
• Advocate for better policies governing food waste, encouraging collection and reuse in composting.
• Redistribute existing food and farm subsides to support small, local farmers.

Have an idea you want to share? Email Jen at jen@ledenola.org and we’ll add it to the conversation.

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