My cousin sent me a link to a cool project that Eric Kugler, a friend of hers from AmeriCorps, is helping put together in New Orleans. I’ve mentioned before that I went to eighth grade and high school in the Crescent City; I still feel emotionally very tied to the area and probably always will. There’s no other city remotely like it in the United States.
Small Axe Farms is trying to inspire and heal New Orleans children — who, god knows, went through hell during and after Hurricane Katrina — by creating community organic food gardens. The first of these is transforming a weed-choked vacant lot on the corner of Music Street and N. Rampart Street, and a lot of progress has been made in just 10 weeks. Eric posted a short video of the kids and the garden to YouTube; there are also more pictures on Fickr.
The project’s name comes from a Bob Marley song, in which he sings that even a big tree can be felled by a small axe. Eric explains in a neighborhood newsletter that the big tree in this case also refers to “crime, drugs, violence and social injustice. We intend to help ’sharpen the axe’ through youth involvement and education.”
Small Axe’s volunteers work with schools to get kids working in the dirt and learning about agriculture and sustainability as well as to get fresh organic vegetables into the local stores. They’re not the only ones — there’s also an Edible Schoolyard offshoot in New Orleans, too.
New Orleans is going through a lot of tension and turmoil over how (and if) sections of it will be rebuilt, but one issue that its residents can really come together on is food. New Orleanians love to eat, and they eat well. The farmers markets are stronger than ever, and restaurants are rallying around local suppliers. Helping kids heal while growing food for this battered, impoverished city is truly a great thing, and if you can spare some money, the Small Axe project can surely use your donations.
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