I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference in New Orleans. Entitled “Ending Hunger Through Citizen Service,” it was hosted by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH), a national anti-hunger coalition based in New York City that, while beginning in NYC, has expanded to a national scope. The conference was a mid-year learning experience for the numerous AmeriCorps VISTA members who serve under the NYCCAH umbrella.

In a collaborative process among the VISTAs in attendance, we discussed the various barriers to multicultural food security and, using the same method, discussed ways of educating kids on nutrition, as well as access to programs such as WIC, SNAP, and food access in general in rural areas. We also listened to presentations from our fellow VISTAs about things they do in their work. I would have to say the highlight of my visit to New Orleans was the site visit to the recently opened Refresh Project on Broad Street.

The Refresh Project is a collaborative effort among several different tenant partners to provide the Broad Street neighborhood with health, wellness, and food access programs. A major partner within the Refresh Project, and the anchor in this effort, is the Whole Foods Market, which functions an oasis of food access in an area otherwise considered a food desert. Food desert is defined by the USDA as “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options.” This Whole Foods Market, as part of the Whole Cities Foundation, has a focus on produce at a lower cost, as well as the 365 Whole Foods generic brands.  This model provides a food retail experience that is more tailored to the neighborhood surrounding it, where almost 60% of children live in poverty.  Broad Street operates as a boundary between the neighborhoods of Mid-City, Treme, and other neighborhoods of New Orleans. It was an area where convenience and dollar stores, along with fast food and gas stations, reigned prior to the opening of Whole Foods within the Refresh Project.

The Refresh Project is much more than its anchor of Whole Foods. The building is the headquarters for Broad Community Connections, a non-profit organization working to revitalize the Broad Street area. It is also a major partner in the creation of the Refresh Project. The building also houses the Goldring Center of Culinary Medicine, a part of Tulane University, which works to more than double the amount of nutrition education that future physicians receive, as well as help them to understand how to talk to their patients about cooking, food, and their effects on health. They also provide continuing medical education to current physicians, as well as free community cooking classes to those in the local community.

Liberty’s Kitchen is the on-site café, and its staff members prepare goods to be sold across the foyer at Whole Foods. Liberty’s Kitchen is a program focused on helping at-risk 16-24 year old youth who are unemployed and out of school develop life and work skills. Youth within the program are taught basic work skills, such as how to dress and punctuality, before being moved to the back area of Liberty’s Kitchen, where they learn food preparation skills. After they’ve accomplished that area, they are moved to the front of the cafe, where they learn customer service skills. A recently added component is a kind of “on-the-job” interview where graduates work at a local hotel or restaurant for a month for experience and the possibility of being hired. This whole process usually takes 3-4 months. Liberty’s Kitchen has also partnered with local schools to provide about 4000 healthy meals to children in schools, along with nutrition education. Liberty’s Kitchen keeps up with its graduates for a full year after program completion — lending a helping hand through job placement services, continuing education, and acquisition of other needed services.

Wandering around the Refresh Project, you won’t be able to miss the beautiful community gardens created by SPROUT NOLA. The gardens are designed both for community members to use, working their own plots, as well as small gardens designed for their in-the-works gardening education courses for kids. The gardens also include herb and flower gardens where community members can pick the produce they want. In an unprecedented move of support for community gardens, community members can ask a gardener for help with gardening and harvesting at any time during business hours, and there is always a gardener on duty to help. They will also soon be hosting gardening classes at the Refresh Project. This awesome community garden was created with the help of the community voting for SPROUT NOLA to win a contest through Garnier.  They won and were provided with over $140,000 worth of materials, dirt, and other necessary items.

Other tenant partners include BoysTown and FirstLine Schools. FirstLine Schools runs five charter schools within New Orleans (where most schools are now charter schools following Katrina) that utilize Edible Schoolyards, where garden education is integrated into the curriculum and students both learn where their food comes from and how to prepare it. Chef educators have worked to create lesson plans for math, science, social studies, and English that bring the garden and nutrition into the classroom.

While not on the Refresh Project campus, the Refresh Project works closely with Tulane University and the Ruth U. Fertel Tulane Community Health Center. The Health Center helps provide medical care and nutrition education to the community, as well providing the Fruit and Veggie Rx Program, a special initiative that provides patients with a “prescription” for fruits and veggies that can be redeemed at local farmer’s markets.

The Refresh Project has been embraced by the local community, and it is filling a need within a needy community. A major part of their success owes to the fact that they involved the community from the get-go and asked them what they wanted, and what they needed. The project then worked to provide the services needed in the community. Refresh Project is truly a model that many communities could replicate in trying to solve the health, wellness and food insecurity issues they face.v