BFRDP Projects

Recirculating Farms Coalition: Growing Local - Training New and Beginning Sustainable Urban Farmers In New Orleans, Louisiana
[Progress Report]

Award Amount: $500,000
Grant Program: 2014 Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Awards
Project Director: Marianne Cufone
Email: mcufone@recirculatingfarms.org
Organization: Recirculating Farms Coalition

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  • Overview
  • Results
  • Materials
  • Delivery Area
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Project Overview



The greater New Orleans, Louisiana area suffers from poverty, food insecurity and a lack of stable jobs in green businesses. To enhance food security, community development and economic and ecological sustainability, community-based, non-governmental organizations, in cooperation with public and private partners, hosted a series of intensive multi-day beginning, intermediate and advanced farmer trainings and single topic classes, over a 2-year period to provide education, training, internships and mentoring on a range of priority farming topic areas to new and beginning urban farmers in New Orleans, Louisiana. Variety in days and times allowed people from assorted ethnic, religious and social backgrounds equal opportunities to participate. The goal was to increase the number of sustainable new and beginning urban farmers by providing them and their families with the knowledge, skills and tools needed to make informed decisions for their operations. Target audiences were: low income and limited resource farmers, military veterans, women and minorities. The multi-day intensive training sessions were video-recorded, to provide a distance learning option for those unable to attend in person and for use in refresher and ongoing future training. Participants were offered the opportunity to intern at a local working farm to further enhance their experiential learning, and were connected with local experienced farmers and other support entities for long-term assistance on their future endeavors.

Number of Participants: 823

Results

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