Food Deserts in New Orleans

NOLA Green Roots is a network of community gardens throughout New Orleans. They are teaching youth, low-income residents, and senior citizens hot to grow fresh fruits and vegetables at a low cost. Their gardens provide access to fresh produce and plants as well as lessons on satisfying labor needs, improving neighborhoods, building a sense of community and connecting to the environment (mission statement on NOLAgreenroots.com)

On my first day at NOLA Green Roots I collected some data for grant writing purposes (to show need). I spent a lot of time on the USDA Food Desert Locator-http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/fooddesert/fooddesert.html collecting data about food deserts in New Orleans. Over 131,000 people in New Orleans live in a food desert! Thats about a third of our total population, and many of those people with little or no access to food are low-income. I also generated some sample thank you letters for donors and created files for individual donors. I'm excited to see what happens next week!

Karin