With success of the "Food Talk Project" (Read about the "Food Talk Project" in Algiers here), and the resulting posters created by students interviewing community members about their history and relationship to food, a new learning opportunity was born at O. Perry Walker College & Career Prepatory High School and Community Center.

Teacher Sheryl Eaglin, and Principal Mary Laurie of O. Perry Walker encouraged the students and welcomed the participating community members into this creative and powerful learning experience. From their work on the "Food Talk Project", students expressed that they wanted to learn how to cook and grow food.

As a result, O. Perry Walker offered the "Cooking Right" class that teaches techniques for smart shopping, growing food, and preparing healthful meals. Container gardens were installed at the school, and students tended to the vegetables as they grew. Peers and elders in the community came to the classroom and taught students how to prepare the meals (like gumbo and other local favorites), and shared recipes that students could use at home and with friends.

The "Cooking Right" class has been adopted by O. Perry Walker High School as a permanent elective, and teacher Sheryl Eaglin is leading the classroom now, under the curriculum and guidance of Johanna Gilligan to pass on the torch.

To view Pictures from the "Cooking Right" classes click here. Clicking on each individual picture will enlarge the image for better viewing.

The "Cooking Right" elective was the school's most popular elective offered in the Spring semester!

The students, along with other residents have begun to improve access to healthful food and become a "Good Food Neighborhood".

To learn more about the "Food Talk Project" or the "Cooking Right" classes, please email Community Organizer Johanna Gilligan at johanna@noffn.org, or call (504) 864-2009.

The focus of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network's "Good Food Neighborhood" is to create sustainable neighborhood-based food systems. The Algiers neighborhood was selected by the Food & Farm Network to help community members improve their access to healthful food in their neighborhood. Involving the community in understanding the history of food in Algiers, why good food is important, where the current food comes from, and ways to obtain better quality and access in the neighborhood is part of the foundation of the project.

In Algiers, as part of the "Good Food Neighborhood" program, a "Neighborhood Food Map" was created to show residents where food could be found in their area. In addition, the "Farm Yard Project" engages residents in growing food organically at home, and the "Food Talk Project" involves youth at a local high school getting in touch with where their food comes from.

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Created in conjunction with residents, Neighborhood Food Maps provide in-depth information about local food availability. Food maps allow everyone to visualize all the food and growing resources available in their communities and note opportunities for improvement. As food availability changes, these detailed maps will show those changes and highlight the neighborhood’s healthy food success stories, such as:

• more fresh food in local stores
• healthy cooking classes
• urban farms
• local fruit and vegetable stands
• community gardens in which food plants are grown
• and many more.

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Locating nearby food in New Orleans is a challenge in some neighborhoods. The Food & Farm Network wanted to connect our residents with local places to find food. Here are the tools we have designed to help better locate food:

The NOLA Food Map Project

The NOLA Food Map Project began as a way to help returning residents find food in post-Katrina New Orleans. This interactive online map shows retail and emergency food locations in Orleans Parish. We distributed thousands of printed neighborhood-based and emergency food maps in Summer 2006.

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One of the neighborhoods that is in the focus of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network is the Algiers Neighborhood of New Orleans.

Situated on the West bank of the Mississippi River with a view of the French Quarter and downtown New Orleans, Algiers has a unique character and old world feel. From the old courthouse and the main thoroughfare of Opelousas Street, to the heritage park on the levee and the historic homes, Algiers has an almost rural "feel" in some areas, with an urban "feel" in others.

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In looking at several neighborhoods in New Orleans for healthy food access before Hurricane Katrina, the Food & Farm Network noticed that the Hollygrove community had several difficulties when it came to finding nearby good food. The original family-run supermarket that had provided food to the neighborhood for many years had closed, and the supermarkets that had been less than a mile away had packed up and left a few years before. The only leftovers to make groceries, as locals call it, were the small corner stores and a strip mall that housed a new store, both which sold little produce and lots of processed foods.

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