-- Community members in the Guerrilla Garden --
Food Insecurity In New Orleans: Building More Self-reliant Communities Through Backyard Gardening
This week’s post is inspired by the PR campaign proposal I developed for The Backyard Gardeners Network. The non-profit organization is based on the mission to sustain and strengthen the historically self-sufficient and deeply rooted community of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans using their own food growing traditions as a platform to build a community, revitalize the neighborhood and preserve the cultural heritage.
Surprisingly, New Orleans ranks second in the number of homeless people after New York. Even for low-income families who have homes, access to nutritious food is a daily struggle. According to the No Kid Hungry Campaign launched by Share Our Strength and Mayor Mitch Landrieu in 2010, nearly one in four children in Louisiana are constantly struggling against hunger. This issue is even more prevalent in New Orleans. Over 13,000 children (20.9 percent) in New Orleans are at risk of hunger and 90 percent of children in Orleans Parish are income-eligible for nutrition programs. At the same time, one in three children in Louisiana are overweight. This is paradoxical, isn’t it?
Obesity is not necessarily a sign of food surplus. Children fighting hunger can be prone to being obese because they don’t have access to quality food. Instead, they are likely to eat cheap meals or fast food without that has no nutritious value. As a result, children are growing up not knowing how to cook with naturally grown food.
Not many New Orleanians know that the Lower 9th Ward has a rich cultural history of backyard gardening. These food-growing traditions do not only provide food, but are part of creating a healthier, closer-knit and more self-reliant community. The Backyard Gardeners Network located in the Lower 9th Ward has created such a community where residents can grow their own food.
The nonprofit organization invites residents of all ages to participate in events such as the weekly Food As Medicine workshop that focuses on food as a primary source of healing. The Backyard Gardeners Network also offers a weekly Kids Club, a monthly Super Saturday community party, and a Youth Internship program. Click here to read more about their programs
Organizations like this leave us with hope that the cultural traditions of backyard gardening will be beneficial to more communities in New Orleans and continue to contribute to healthier, more self-reliant and more close-knit neighborhoods.