We would like to thank Delgado Community College Professor Nancy Collins and her students – Marcus Carter, Jorge Diaz, Tatiana Dilbert, Alex Gingrow, Kory Keating, Sean Kennedy, Tabitha Leonard, Aubrey Primeaux – in the Division of Arts & Humanities VISC 224 Computer III class for working with us on this.

The students worked diligently with the overabundance of information we tried to squeeze into one sheet of paper.

They developed these design proposals:

Eventually, it was consolidated into this:

 We can’t help but tinker here at NOFFN (and we needed to solve the overabundance of information trying to fit on the brochure.  So this is our new brochure that we couldn’t have created with the Delgado folks. Thanks.

DOWNLOAD the 2013 NOFFN brochure here.

I have an answer. It’s an answer that may be different from what you thought NOFFN did.

NOFFN is a unique organization. It started out as a response to address the gaps in the food system that our founders saw – we had a strong thriving farmers market culture thanks to the work of marketumbrella and others. We still had limited food access in many neighborhoods. We started doing very basic organizing activities – backyard gardens, fruit trees distributed to residents, getting people to sign the Food Charter showing their support for building a local food system.

Over the past decade, the New Orleans Food & Farm Network (NOFFN) has helped to incubate many asset-based food projects (providing organizational support, capacity-building, and technical assistance) throughout the City – Our School at Blair Grocery, Backyard Gardeners Network, Grow Dat Youth Farm, Hollygrove Market & Farm, NOLA Green Roots, and Good Food NOLA among others.

Despite these successes, there has been little significant increase in the number of urban farmers.

About Us

Access to fresh, healthy, affordable local food is one of the most critical, and unmet, needs that New Orleans currently faces.

NOFFN is a food justice organization. We support the transformation of where, what, and how food is grown, produced, transported, accessed, and eaten to ensure equal access to safe, nutritious, enjoyable food for everyone and to build the local food economy.

NOFFN sees food justice as education, awareness, and outreach coupled with action – to help create viable alternatives. Alternatives that not only provide food, but help strengthen neighborhood economies, provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for residents and offer innovative ways to utilize vacant space.

We help incubate neighborhood-led projects and the regional food economy by working at all scales, from backyards, to city lots, to a network of commercial farms, with a goal of achieving food justice.

Sustainable farming – urban and rural – now and in the future – needs direct help to enable them to survive and thrive. NOFFN does this by:

• Methodically develop the sustainable supply of produce in New Orleans.
• Identifying interested urban farmers, building their business and horticultural capacities.
• Inserting the will of the city for fresh food into development plans and funding.
• Creating vacant land policies and development mechanisms that are supportive to urban agriculture.
• At the same time, immediate food access and the future farmers come from getting folks interested in growing in their backyards and community gardens for their own consumption.

NOLA Farms Toolbox

We are developing a NOLA Farms Toolbox that is a collection of best practices and tools designed to overcome the main obstacles to urban agriculture:

Land Access

• Farm This Now! Map (an on-line vacant lot finder)
• Land Acquisition Handbook
• Farmer-Landowner Lease Template
• Other Land Issues (insurance, water access, vending, zoning, soil resources)
• Project Development Assistance (land acquisition, project planning, community engagement)

Training & Mentoring

• New & Beginning Urban Farmer Trainings (production/management; business management/decision-support; marketing; and legal matters relative to farming in NOLA)
• Farmer Internship Program
• Grow Mo’ Betta Workshops (sustainable food growing techniques)
• Community Food Education Workshops (cooking, storage, and nutrition instruction)
• NOLA Farms Workshops (specifically for neighborhoods – garden starting, organic growing, soil building, rainwater catchment/ irrigation, animals & orchards)
• NOLA Farms Leaders (train-the-trainer program of community practitioners and experts)

Farm Financing

• Farm Financing Reference Manual — a much-appreciated thanks to Jean-Michel, Miguel, Cristiano, Romario and the John Deere’s Inspiring Leadership Program for helping on this – to be distributed soon.
• Funding Resource Directory
• Small groups can apply for Fiscal Sponsorship for specific grants

Market Development

• Market Farmer Guidance (product lists, pricing/marketing, best handling & food safety practices, growing/harvesting/cleaning/packaging/storage, transportation & food hubs, and product liability insurance)

Toolbox + Action = Change

These tools and best practices will serve as the intellectual architecture for our local food system. Yet we also know that tools alone cannot create the changes we need. Along with the coordinated action of lots of people and groups, neighborhood organizing, and catalyst projects to initiate neighborhood collaboration, the Toolbox can help people transform vacant lots into urban farms.

Repurposing land within neighborhoods is crucial to the advancement of urban agriculture and to New Orleans neighborhoods realizing its many benefits. Scores of New Orleans gardens and small farms already produce fresh, healthy food for family consumption and for sale at markets, and more and more people are starting agricultural projects each year.

Our intent is to create the opportunity for neighborhoods to create wealth and develop the potential to use the land.

Farm This Now! Organizing

• The Farm This Now! map will allow people to search lots near them and get in touch with each other.
• Our focus is on a print poster – distributed by neighbors, staff, interns, volunteers, partners, and volunteer groups – because we know that it’s the best way to get in touch with people who live near the lots.
• There is little to distinguish one vacant lot from another when you walk through a neighborhood.
• You can’t tell who the owner is (be it a private landowner or a government agency).
• People who notice the poster and have been thinking about doing something with the lot see this as their opportunity and get in touch with us.
• Turning unused space into something positive changes how people view, and interact in, their neighborhood.
• Working on reclaiming a vacant lot provides an avenue for neighbors to get to know each other and work through issues directly.

Catalyst Projects

• To begin the collaborative process between neighbors and organizations, NOFFN is initiating catalyst projects – specifically, Neighborhood Orchards and Tool Lending Libraries.
• Engaging people on a common project helps organizations and neighbors build trust and communication lines that will support future projects.

NOFFN wants to build the movement toward food sovereignty.  We want to do it democratically. We want to ensure that our neighbors get a fair opportunity to be part of the local food system. We want to figure out a way that NOLA neighborhoods address and counter the Agricultural Gentrification** we see picking up steam in other places.(** more on this topic in a later EDblog post)
—–

The challenge for the Delgado students is to crunch all the above onto 6 panels with a max of 258 words.

“Everywhere we turn, we’re hearing about new urban farms and rooftop gardens atop city buildings.

Food-related business incubators are churning out more than just jellies and jams: they’re spinning off new small businesses.

And yet, as much as we hear about the growth of the “food cluster” — few of us really understand the complexity of it….”

A short film that brilliantly shows the simplicity and productivity of aquaponics — not a fish farm — produce that is grown along with a small amount of fish that mimics a natural ecosystem

Tony Lee, NOFFN Garden Leader, has created a beautiful Parkway Partners community garden at  3320 Ma

gellan Street, Algiers, LA 70114.

He's always looking for folks to get involved. Please contact him at sunikat53@gmail.com

Listen to internet radio with Dr Jeanette Gallagher on Blog Talk Radio

Dr. Jeanette Gallagher talks with Sanjay Kharod, of the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, and Marianne Cufone, of the New Orleans based, Recirculating Farms Coalition.

The two non profits have joined together in building an Urban Food and Farm Center in the downtown New Orleans area.

The new Center will showcase various methods of urban farming, host farming and gardening classes, farm to table cooking classes, community events, a new farmers market, provide programs for youth, families and seniors and support urban farmers through various projects and policy initiatives.

The Center will be a hub for healthy eating and lifestyles in the area.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation announced on August 9, 2012 the 12 Louisiana programs that will be awarded grants through its Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana.

One of the 12 projects awarded is Growing LA: Rebuilding A Healthy and Sustainable Local Food Culture – a partnership of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, Recirculating Farms Coalition, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and others, which will receive $440,000 to build a 1.5-acre community farm at the Convention Center to make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible to low-income residents.

The basis of Growing LA will create an accessible working farm that uses innovative and eco-friendly urban farming methods. With a classroom and teaching kitchen, this farm will be a training center that empowers people to grow their own healthy food and prepare it in a culturally enjoyable manner such that these techniques become integral to a healthy community lifestyle. The farm will host a new weekly farmers’ market with pricing to especially encourage low-income participants and on-going interactive public workshops for children, teens, adults and families on various topics. Further, project partners will facilitate mentorship and networking at the farm among aspiring, novice, and experienced growers, and collectively develop locally appropriate strategies for training new growers to provide more healthy local food.

The proposed space will be used as an educational tool to teach residents how to grow fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits at an affordable cost as well as provide access to fresh produce and plants.

The Garden Project seeks to provide a setting to cultivate local, indigenous, and healthy food for the 7th Ward community.

As a corollary of the RAE Mission, the Garden will also:

• connect those who have been exonerated of crimes, as well as the formerly incarcerated, to meaningful work as well as their communities;
• teach meaningful skills that can be transferred to employment opportunities;
• encourage a culture of solidarity, tolerance, and acceptance that renders meaningful resources for all members of the community.

If you’d like to help out, please come by 1220 Columbus St. between Henriette Dellile and Marais Streets.

discusses the 3 levels of racism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktj4jGmUs6Y&feature=youtu.be

“When health startup Massive Health first released the Eatery, a simple iPhone app that asks people to take pictures of their food and then rate other people’s pictures based on their healthiness (kind of like a Hot or Not for food), it was hard to gauge its potential impact…

“…Here are some of the statistics from the Eatery’s hundreds of thousands of users…

• People in different parts of the world have somewhat strange proclivities. For whatever reason, people in San Francisco eat a whole lot more brussel sprouts than everyone else. New Yorkers eat more arugula, and Philadelphia residents eat more bagels. Sao Paulo residents eat more beans. Guess which city shown in the infographic is unhealthiest based on overall Eatery food ratings? (It’s Philadelphia.)
• People eat 1.7% less healthy after each hour that passes in the day, presumably as their willpower erodes. That means breakfast is usually the healthiest meal, while dinner is the unhealthiest.
• Eatery users eat 12.4% less healthy than they think they do. The less healthy a food is, the less accurate users rate it for themselves. A user might rate their recently eaten slice of pizza as being pretty healthy, but judge a slice of pizza eaten by someone else as unhealthy.
• Copenhagen is the healthiest city in the infographic based on Eatery use, followed by Sao Paolo, New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Philadelphia.

If you know of any individuals or organizations that would be interested in becoming a member of this group, please contact Russell Harris, LSU AgCenter Orleans Parish Associate Extension Agent/County Agent – RuHarris@agcenter.lsu.edu – so that he can add them to the list of contacts and keep them informed about upcoming meetings.

By Claire Thompson

“…The folks behind Harlem-based Corbin Hill Farm don’t see sustainably grown local produce as a passing craze for the foodie elite; on the contrary, they’re figuring out a way to make it accessible to low-income communities on a large scale.

“Founder and longtime Harlem resident Dennis Derryck has long been aware that people in his community and the nearby South Bronx don’t have much access to good, fresh food. But when it came to solutions, as he saw it, “all these small and beautiful things had very little impact. School gardens, rooftop gardens, educational programs — at the end of the program, where was the parent or the kid supposed to go?”…

“… Derryck tweaked the [CSA] model to make sense for low-income consumers: Corbin Hill shareholders pay only a week in advance, can put their shares on hold at any time, and can use any form of payment — including food stamps. The program caters to neighborhood cultural tastes by including items like cilantro, tomatillos, and collard greens whenever possible, and every box comes with recipes written in both Spanish and English…

..Originally, the plan was for that farm to provide the bulk of the food for urban shareholders, but Derryck soon realized the operation would scale up much faster by sourcing from a network of producers in the area. Now the food delivered to the city comes from a cooperative of 15 farmers — many of them young — who meet every January to devise a harvest plan for the season. Just as Derryck takes seriously the needs of the urban population Corbin Hill serves, he also stresses his commitment to the farmers: They’re paid equally and on time, and when mapping out the harvest plan, crops are allocated first to the smallest farms, which are most vulnerable…

” The students’ aim is turning brown poop into green money. So far, they have spent three days in a classroom studying the theory and application

of their endeavor: Aquaponics.

It’s a process of combining farming fish that help grow plants, which results in two sellable products …..

….. The fish are fed grain pellets and produce excrement. The waste flows into a tank with bacteria that converts it into nitrites. Then, ammonia transforms nitrites into nitrates and flows through the PVC pipes into the water. Now, the nutrient rich water flows to the plants where their roots are submerged.”

for more information — Please contact Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation

These extra aspects of it, you know.

Things like, “Oh, we also want to use this food in the future to provide food in the schools where our children go to, so they can eat healthy as well.”

These sort of extra aspects don’t come out of us sitting behind a desk and contemplating, but i

t really comes out of us building a relationship with community members and fleshing out ideas, so they can come up with their own comprehensive solutions to what they see is important or needs to be addressed in the community.

So that’s definitely the key ingredient, is community engagement.”

– Daniel Nguyen from MQVN CDC on their work in New Orleans East

via Troubled Waters: Discussion with Vietnamese Community Advocate Daniel Nguyen | Bridge The Gulf Project.

“…Looking at [Emily] Schiffer’s photos and talking with people involved in urban farming, I’ve come to realize that their efforts have less to do with providing healthy food than they do with a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of their community and their daily lives. Growing Home is one of Chicago’s larger urban farming projects, much of it located in Englewood, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. While it harvests 13,000 pounds of vegetables a year on a half-acre site, nearly all are sold to restaurants and at a farmers market on the city’s more prosperous North Side. But Growing Home has altered the landscape of the neighborhood—and it employs local residents, many of whom because of past indiscretions have trouble finding work elsewhere…

…There’s been a growing body of research that suggests that urban farming and greening not only strengthen community bonds but also reduce violence. In 2000, Philadelphia had 54,000 vacant lots, and so the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society reclaimed 4,400 of them, mowing lands, providing upkeep, planting trees and gardens, and erecting three-foot-high fences that served no purpose other than as a kind of statement that this land now belonged to someone. The greening of these parcels (just 8 percent of the vacant land in the city) had an unexpected effect: Over the course of 10 years, it reduced shootings in the areas surrounding these renewed lots. Part of it was practical: The vacant lots had previously been hiding places for guns. But as Charles Branas, an epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania who released a study on the project late last year, says, “People just became more in touch with their neighbors. People felt more connected to each other.” Calls from neighbors complaining of nuisance crimes—acts like loitering or public urination or excessive noise—went up significantly in the immediate vicinity of the newly greened land. At first, Branas worried the land had attracted ne’er-do-wells, but what he came to

realize is that it had emboldened neighbors to call the police for minor disturbances, something they hadn’t done in the past. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun to look at greening as a tool for violence prevention…”

Shared with us by our partner Common Ground Relief in the Lower 9th Ward of NOLA.

Something to consider if

L9 wants to support existing L9 businesses…

“Philadelphia’s study, distinct in scope and scale, may deliver a breakthrough.

“The city has, in many ways, been the epicenter of American efforts to improve food access. Of the country’s 10 largest cities, its population is the lowest-income, and it has higher obesity rates than New York City and Baltimore. It’s home to The Food Trust, a nonprofit that has risen to national prominence as an advocate for increasing food access for low-income Americans.

“Working with Food Trust, in the late 2000s Philadelphia began piloting healthy corner stores. In 2010, it ramped up efforts significantly when it received $25.4 million in stimulus funds meant to combat obesity and tobacco use. That initial grant was bolstered with $1.5 million more in funding from the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund, a $15 billion commitment to projects that promote preventive health.

“It was a historic investment in public health,” says the public health department’s Mallya, who oversees the initiative for Philadelphia. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get that level of investment again. So for us, it’s very much been transformative.”

“The city has recruited 632 corner stores — of 2,500 overall — to its Get Healthy Philly initiative. Of those, 122 have gotten more intensive support, been supplied with new fridges to store produce and connected with wholesalers from whom they can buy at lower prices. It is also working with schools to improve nutrition and helping neighborhoods launch farmers markets, a multifaceted approach officials hope will improve public health….”

“They’re growing like weeds, but often growing only weeds. Urban gardens and farms are appearing in backyards, schools and empty lots in cities all over the country. But people with the actual know-how and willingness to tend them – in other words, farmers – are far less abundant…

“…What these neglected gardens need, [Dan Allen] argues, is more consistent and trained minders who have the skills and time to maintain them. He points to the urban farming initiative in Cuba, where the state actively supports the infrastructure and the farmers who, in Havana, are producing an estimated 90 percent of the city’s fruits and vegetables locally…”

By Mihir Zaveri, Published: June 16, 2012

The Ward 8 Farmers Market in Washington, DC has launched a shuttle bus — which takes a 30-minute, eight-stop loop around Ward 8 — and takes residents to the market and bring them back for free.

“…In a study conducted by the city a few years ago, Ward 8 had an adult obesity rate of nearly 42 percent and a diabetes rate of about 18 percent…

“…The Ward 8 farmers market is open for business every Saturday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., with 10 vendors selling tomatoes and other standard produce, such as cherries, blueberries and lettuce. One vendor sells sweet potato cookies…

“…The market began after Safeway — the ward’s only full-service supermarket at the time — closed down in 1998, making it more difficult for residents to shop for groceries.

“…[John] Gloster organized the community to start up the farmers market, which began with Gloster and other people running it themselves and selling the produce, he said. It’s since evolved. The 10 vendors sell their goods under blue and white canopies in the parking lot of the Arc on Mississippi Avenue SE, and 200 to 300 people pass through every week…”

NOFFN helps incubate many urban farm projects.

This series looks at urban farms in NOLA and innovative other models from around the nation.

As of September 2010, 25% of New Orleans’ properties were officially listed as “blighted”. That’s 43‚755 empty homes and vacant lots. These properties threaten NOLA’s recovery, property values, and neighborhood health. Although the number of empty lots has declined from over 65,000 in March 2008, New Orleans’ blight problem still exceeds that of other foreclosure-stricken cities such as Detroit, Flint, and Cleveland. (Check out Greater New Orleans Data Center for latest numbers)

The City of New Orleans still has much work to do if they are to reach their goal of transforming 10,000 blighted properties before 2014. It will require continued outreach and support to help residents rebuild and return home.  Programs such as The Lot Next Door, of New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA), aim to accomplish just this.

The program was established by a New Orleans City Council Ordinance following Hurricane Katrina. The requirements for the Lot Next Door Program are as follows:

• NORA must own or control the adjacent property
• Purchaser must live directly adjacent to the property
• Purchaser must share frontage with the property
• Purchaser must have received a homestead exemption on their property

According to their website, “The Lot Next Door program provides residents living adjacent to Louisiana Land Trust properties the first opportunity to purchase and redevelop these properties.” Louisiana Land Trust/Road Home Properties are eligible for the Lot Next Door program. This allows NOLA residents to expand their home or yard into neighboring blighted lots- transforming unused or empty, run-down spaces, into cared-for land. To date, The Lot Next Door has worked to reduce blight at approximately 936 properties.

The Lot Next Door purchasers may also take advantage of the Growing Home Incentive, a program that provides technical assistance and up to a $10,000 discount for landscaping improvements or garden start-ups. The New Orleans Food and Farm Network has supported this program in the past by providing seeds and other materials.

By offering direct tech

nical and financial support for folks starting up gardens or beautifying the lot, Growing Home ensures “an opportunity to re-purpose vacant land into usable, productive, esthetic or otherwise sustainable infrastructure,” Ariel Wallick of NOFFN notes.

Simply putting these properties up for sale would only reduce blight in neighborhoods with already-strong housing markets. And buyers are likely to just purchase the lots for speculation purposes, keeping them vacant and untended.

But Lot Next Door and Growing Home programs create a more viable option for communities. As Wallace puts it “Partnering with the city and other local agencies in creating policy, procedures and planning to convert blighted land into productive, usable community assets is…. essential to supporting sustainable and lasting community-centered, socially and environmentally driven urban development.”

• To learn more about the Lot Next Door program visit:    www.noraworks.org/residents/lot-next-door

• To learn more about the Growing Home Incentive visit:  http://www.growinghomenola.org/

• To find out if you qualify to purchase a neighboring lot contact NORA at: http://www.noraworks.org/contact

****

UPDATE: According to Sanjay Kharod, Executive Director of NOFFN, NOFFN is putting together a simple roadmap on how to acquire vacant or blighted property for urban farming —

through purchase or leasing from landowners, through the Lot Next Door program, application to NORA for Louisiana Land Trust properties, etc. It should be available soon and will be posted on this website.

Sources:

www.noraworks.org/residents/lot-next-door

http://www.gnocdc.org/BenchmarksForBlight/index.html

http://www.noraworks.org/contact

www.nola.gov/residents/…/BlightStrategyPowerpoint093010.ashx

About the author: Page May is an enthusiast for sustainable food systems and anti-hunger initiatives. She works on climate education and youth engagement in Chicago. Follow her at @may20p

 www.Hypersmash.com

They are designing and building some innovative projects at Hollygrove Market & farm, Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC, and other sites in NOLA.

NOF

FN, in collaboration with the Recirculating Farms Coalition and AMPS, is looking to merge aquaponics with soil-based growing at various sites throughout the city.

Information Handout