This summer, the New York 2 New Orleans Coalition and the Youth Coalition for Community Action organized the “Food Justice Summer-” service learning brigades of 400 college and high school students from across the country to
Our School at Blair Grocery, a center for sustainability education and Youth Empowerment in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.
This year, OSBG began working with local farmers and landowners in rural Louisiana to expand their vision of community food security. At the beginning of the summer, a group of young people were introduced to Afi Andrew (affectionately known as Sunflower) and her son Jahba, who were willing to allocate one acre of their land in Hammond to turn into an organic vegetable farm. In exchange, we would work clearing out the land, repairing a beautiful but dilapidated fence and a rotting bee-occupied stage to turn the space back into a flourishing healing center and community space. Here is a glimpse of some of the transformation this summer.
Students from New York and New Orleans clear a spot where our kitchen herb and spice garden now stands.
Starts germinating. More pics later! Painted Chicken Coop built out of recycled pallets!
Goat Pen in the woods. These are born- and bred New Orleans goats, so it took them a while to get used to the country- at first the crickets kept them up all night!
Bumps along the road- our van got stuck in the mud and Mr. Square from down the road came and pulled us out with his tractor.
 |
| The Aftermath! |
 |
| Who will take out the trash? |
Have you ever seen the
story of stuff? A lot of the work we did this summer was sorting and taking out trash. There was literally tons of it to organize with Sunflower, choose what to keep, and load and truck tons of it to the dump in Independence. We know that just because the trash is in the dump it is not “away” and it still continues to affect people in environmental justice communities in Louisiana and around the world, but it allowed us to breathe and focus on the other projects.
 |
| Sunflower teaches Shameana and Emily how to make bark tea for cramps |
As more and more old got cleared out to make new space for the new, we began to hear more and more about Sunflower’s vision for Aura Omelet. We also began to realize what an amazing and resource-rich person Sunflower is. She made sure to spend time with all of the students that passed through her yard this summer in “one-on- one” time where she listened and counseled about their growth, learning process, and struggles this summer. She also shared a lot with about her life and her different passions in art, healing, vegetarian cooking, writing, and much more.
She also taught us a lot about the history of her property and the history of Hammond which we developed into an interactive walking tour for each group of students.
We developed debriefs and workshops which became “Hammond Curriculum” around freedom and choices, mental blocks,personal accountability, and food sovereignty.
Most of us, whether we are from New York, New Orleans, or Philadelphia, have spent most of our time in crowded cities and not very much time in the country. It was incredible to see the changes in the groups when the got to Hammond- tons of space, trees, animals, blueberries to pick right off the bush. As we watched the transformation in our learning circles and debriefs, in our work ethic and our friendships, we began to see and believe more and more in the power of this space. Three of decided to stay until December to work turning this place into a
10 Acre Outdoor Classroom for Healing , Cultural Expression, and Local Food Security .We Envision a Diverse Community of Learners, Healers, Artists, Farmers, and Empowered Young People Who Continue to Vision, Grow and Build on Our Center.
 |
| See You Soon! |
