Grow Dat Youth Farm
Johanna Gilligan

Program Area: Food & Agriculture
Location of Impact: New Orleans, Louisiana

Bold Idea: Nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food.

Why I Am Passionate AboutThis: The Bureau of Labor reports a 42 percent rate of unemployment among black teenagers. Jobs that are likely to hire teenagers are offering low pay and unsafe working conditions. More than 33 percent of high school students are either overweight or obese. My best friend Santos had a difficult childhood, and through his friendship, I understand how our society fails young men of color. When I moved to New Orleans twelve years ago, I brought a determination to change systems that had failed him. I’ve worked in the field of food education since 2004. After Katrina, I worked with a food justice nonprofit for four years where I launched several smaller-scale food education projects, learning many lessons in a post-disaster environment. Grow Dat Youth Farm creates meaningful job opportunities for high school students in the field of urban agriculture. In this year’s class of students, half of them are male and 90 percent are black. Grow Dat Youth enables this group to be change agents in improving the health of their community’s food system.

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These profiles are derived from Fellowship applications.