{"id":57814,"date":"2020-03-24T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/?p=57814"},"modified":"2020-03-23T23:25:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T03:25:53","slug":"growing-local-collaborative-increases-food-deliveries-and-resources-in-nola-amid-covid-19-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/growing-local-collaborative-increases-food-deliveries-and-resources-in-nola-amid-covid-19-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Local Collaborative Increases Food Deliveries and Resources in NOLA Amid COVID-19 Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS, La., March 24, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Today, the various organizations that make up the Growing Local Collaborative – Recirculating Farms Coalition<\/a>, Top Box Foods Louisiana<\/a>, SPROUT NOLA<\/a>, New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee<\/a>, and Liberty\u2019s Kitchen<\/a> – in partnership with Market Umbrella and the Crescent City Farmers Market<\/a>, are ramping up efforts to keep New Orleans residents fed and healthy by organizing food distribution from farms to families and mapping important resources.<\/p>\n

\"Recirculating
\n*PHOTO CAPTION: Recirculating Farms Coalition team, Michael Richard, II (L) and Emily Bonenfant (R), loads Growing Local Garden bags for delivery.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

Connor DeLoach, Executive Director of Top Box Louisiana said, \u201cIt is even more important for people to have access to fresh food right now, as we all try to be healthy. That\u2019s why we are working with our Growing Local Collaborative partners and Crescent City Farmers Market to bring fresh local food from Louisiana farms right to people\u2019s homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, farmers markets closed to reduce potential for social contact, but people still want fresh local food. Crescent City Farmers Market and SPROUT NOLA worked together to get their growers online – posting profiles about farmers on websites and selling products that normally would be at the markets through a box delivery program with Top Box Foods Louisiana. All the staging and packing is happening at Liberty\u2019s Kitchen, which is currently suspending its other programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting our farmers is critical, so they are able to continue working and providing fresh food for us all,\u201d said Margee Green, Executive Director of SPROUT NOLA and organizer of the Monday ReFresh Farmers Market. \u201cWe are making sure fresh food doesn\u2019t go to waste, and it gets to people who want it, through RFC\u2019s Growing Local box and the new Crescent City Farmers Market box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Recirculating Farms Coalition runs Growing Local NOLA farms. Top Box has been delivering Local Garden Boxes for RFC for years, in neighborhoods with less access to fresh food, like Central City. The Growing Local boxes offers fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs and a fun \u201clagniappe\u201d item for smaller families for $15. The new Crescent City Farmers Market Box is $40 and offers bigger portions. This box is comprised of goods from CCFM vendors and qualifies for their Market Match program. Both boxes accept SNAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmergencies, like this pandemic, illustrate why having a stable local food system is critical,\u201d said Marianne Cufone, Executive Director for Recirculating Farms Coalition. \u201cWe are able to mobilize partners to offer fresh local food for a range of budgets and needs. We started our box to provide food in neighborhoods with low or no access to fresh, healthy options. Now, working with the CCFM farmers, we are expanding what we can offer \u2013 we doubled the number of boxes available this week!\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the boxes, the Collaborative is collecting information about other food resources in the city; NOLA FPAC is taking the lead. Their website lists assorted programs and has a map where children who usually have meals in schools can get grab and go food.<\/p>\n

Elisa Munoz, Executive Director of NOLA FPAC said, \u201cFood is a key part of who we are in New Orleans, and knowing where to access food can help us feel healthier and safer, both of which we need now. We want to offer a wide range of resources for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association of Greater New Orleans and The Humana Foundation are supporting these programs with grants to scale up operations and pay farmers for food.<\/p>\n

About Recirculating Farms Coalition:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Visit: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter (@RecircFarms) and Instagram<\/a> (@growinglocalnola). Learn more here: http:\/\/www.recirculatingfarms.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

About Top Box Foods Louisiana: Visit: Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> (@topboxlouisiana) for updates. Learn more here: https:\/\/www.topboxfoods.com\/new-orleans\/home<\/a><\/p>\n

About SPROUT NOLA: Visit: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, (@SPROUTNOLA), and Instagram (@sproutnola) and learn more here: https:\/\/www.sproutnolafarm.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

About New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee: Visit: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> (@NolaFoodPolicy) and Instagram (@nolafoodpolicy) and learn more here: http:\/\/www.nolafoodpolicy.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

About Liberty\u2019s Kitchen: Visit: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> (@libertysitchen) and Instagram (@libertyskitchen) and learn more here: http:\/\/www.libertyskitchen.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

About Market Umbrella and Crescent City Farmers Market: Visit: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> (@ccfmtweets) and Instagram (@crescentcityfarmersmkt) and learn more here: https:\/\/www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS, La., March 24, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Today, the various organizations that make up the Growing Local Collaborative – Recirculating Farms Coalition, Top Box Foods Louisiana, SPROUT NOLA, New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee, and Liberty’s Kitchen – in partnership with Market Umbrella and the Crescent City Farmers Market, are ramping up efforts to keep New Orleans residents fed and healthy by organizing food distribution from farms to families and mapping important resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7943,"featured_media":57813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[425,1,402,525,12826],"tags":[13027,13030,13028,13029],"class_list":["post-57814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture-news","category-business-news","category-food-beverage-news","category-louisiana-news","category-new-orleans-business","tag-growing-local-collaborative","tag-new-orleans-food-policy-advisory-committee","tag-sprout-nola","tag-top-box-foods-louisiana","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":4643,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7943"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}