You Are Invited to a Community Discussion and Workshop for Lafitte Corridor Fresh Food Access and Community Livability

This year, the Lafitte Greenway was selected as one of 26 locations nationwide to participate in Local Foods, Local Places (LFLP)—a federal initiative led by the White House in partnership with the USDA, EPA, DOT, HUD, CDC, Appalachian Regional Commission, and Delta Regional Authority—coordinated locally by Friends of Lafitte Corridor, that will provide technical support to integrate local food systems into community economic action plans.

We are holding a public dialogue work session on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 from 5:30-8:30 PM at the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center (2200 Lafitte St), to have a discussion, exchange ideas, and generate momentum for action planning to promote local food access, economic opportunity, and community livability in the Lafitte Corridor, with a focus on opportunities for community gardens and farmers markets.

Increasing the amount of community garden space on the Greenway is a central goal of the City’s Lafitte Greenway Master Plan. The Master Plan also includes plans for a Greenway farmers market. Gardens and market space are not currently included in the Greenway’s construction.

Around the country, these workshops have proven to be catalytic events, bringing together local leaders, community groups, city and federal agencies, and funders around an action plan. The LFLP support is technical assistance and does not include grant funding. Identifying funding opportunities will be a goal of the workshop.

Please RSVP below for the Community Workshop!

The community dialog session on Wednesday will be followed by a full day action planning session on Thursday, May 28^th.  The full day work session will be with the federal partners and a consultant team from Renaissance Planning, specializing in local food systems, who will be crafting an action plan around the input and ideas generated during the community discussion on Wednesday evening.

Anyone who is interested and available is also welcome to join the full day session as well, especially if you are interested in directly working or contributing to to bring community gardens and farmers markets to the Lafitte Corridor through involvement in the action plan that results. If you are interested in participating in the full-day Stakeholder Workshop on May 28th, please click here for more information and to RSVP!