Community Corner
How One Nonprofit Nurtures Young Leaders & Helps Feed A Community
At Grow Dat Youth Farm, people from diverse backgrounds come together to create a more just and sustainable food system.
This post is sponsored and contributed by a Patch Brand Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own.
You are what you eat. It's a phrase we've all heard before and one that holds a lot of truth. Healthy food is essential for healthy communities to thrive, but in New Orleans, some neighborhoods simply don't have enough access to fresh produce.
The Big Easy, like many cities across America, is filled with food deserts — areas that have lots of fast-food choices but few or no healthy, sustainable options. Grow Dat Youth Farm is on a mission to fill the gap, providing freshly grown, healthy food for folks who wouldn't otherwise have easy access to it while also providing New Orleans youth with leadership skills for life.
The hardworking staff and dedicated volunteers at Grow Dat are being celebrated in Neighborhood Heroes, a new series from Ring about community leaders creating real, positive, lasting change in their neighborhoods.
"We are trying to change the world — that is exactly what we are trying to do," says Devon Turner, Executive Director of Grow Dat. "We are trying to change our food systems, and in doing so, trying to create stronger and healthier and better communities for the young people who are in our programs. That has to be a team effort."
At Grow Dat, the staff, led by Turner, work with volunteers and diverse youth leaders from across New Orleans to grow and harvest an average of 32,000 pounds of fresh produce each year. 70 percent is sold at Grow Dat's farm stand and at farmers markets run by youth employees, and the other 30 percent is distributed through the Shared Harvest program to low-income residents who otherwise have limited or no access to fresh food.
In addition to growing and distributing healthy food for the food desert, Grow Dat has strived since its founding in 2011 to make communities stronger through teaching young people leadership skills that they can take back to use in their everyday lives.
"So first and foremost, Grow Dat is all about leadership," Turner explains, "and it's about leadership in the areas of food, land and community."
"Each year, we welcome about 70 different young people onto the farm, and they are able to build relationships with folks who they probably never would have," she explains. "This becomes a space for people to come together, who might not [have been] able to do so beforehand. They come, we learn and we grow."
Turner says the program puts "a lot of emphasis on individual growth and development," and for many young people, this includes introducing fresh foods to their diet and taking on new responsibilities on and off the farm.
Alexander Sanders is a young man who Turner points to as one of Grow Dat's success stories. Five years ago, he started as a Crew Member working in the field. The next year, Sanders became an Assistant Crew Leader, and in his third year with Grow Dat, he became a Farm Fellow, a role which has now transitioned to the position of Assistant Farm Manager.
"During those five years, he actually started a recycling business," Turner says proudly. "I highlight him as a success in part because we watched his growth over time within the organization, but he was able to translate that growth in development and leadership off of the farm."
Working at Grow Dat has also led to changes in Sanders' diet and overall health. "Before I worked here, I lived in an area I call a food swamp," he says. "[It's] a place that's just surrounded by endless fast food and doesn't have a source of healthy food."
Now, though, he says he has "endless choices of what to eat" and can feel the difference when he eats healthy, fresh foods versus his old diet of highly processed foods. "I wake up earlier on my own," Sanders says. "I have a little more focus [and] just feel better ... That's the main difference that I would say."
Working at Grow Dat has "created new habits for me in my life," Sanders says, and those go beyond diet. "I process things better," he says. "I buy less plastic. I create budgets with my money, I have bank accounts, [and I'm] working on my credit score."
Sanders says, as a high schooler, he didn't know or care "about any of those things." Now, though, he's in "full adulting mode" and looking forward to a bright future with Grow Dat and the next generation of farmers.
"I think the mission isn't complete until youth are aware of what farming is and what sustainability is," he says. That's why Sanders, Turner and the Grow Dat team continue to nurture the next crop of New Orleans leaders while they work towards eradicating food deserts and growing healthy food for all the communities in New Orleans.
To learn more about Grow Dat Youth Farm, check out growdatyouthfarm.org. And if you know a Neighborhood Hero in your community that Ring should feature in its new series, reach out to stories@ring.com.
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