Category Archives: Press and Multimedia

Co-Director Johanna profiled in St. Charles Avenue Magazine

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Johanna
Co-Director and Founder Johanna Gilligan was recently profiled in St Charles Ave magazine in a piece by Lindsay Mack.

“According to Gilligan, the most rewarding aspect of her job is the chance to work with young adults. She feels that teens are an untapped resource, and Grow Dat helps them become their best selves. Furthermore, the program encourages students from all over the New Orleans metropolitan area to work together, forging friendships among students from many different public and private high schools. Lastly, both Gilligan and the students love the opportunity to work with their hands and spend a great deal of time outdoors.”

Check out the full article on MyNewOrleans.

Best New Architecture: Our Eco Campus!

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BestNewArchitecture

Our Eco Campus is one of five locations selected as ‘the best architecture in New Orleans’!

Have we said recently how much we love our beautiful and sustainable teaching kitchen, outdoor classroom, post-harvest handling area, grey water systems and composting toilets designed and built by Tulane City Center?

Check out the other winning structures in today’s article by John P. Klingman.

Carrying starter plants through the outdoor classroom

Carrying starter plants through the outdoor classroom

Cultivate: Stories from the New American Farmer

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Last spring filmmaker Chandra Simon of Cultivate Films visited Grow Dat while touring small farms throughout the Gulf region.

Simon produced a beautiful short film about our young urban farmers, featuring Crew Members Yasmin Davis, Tim Dubuclet, Martin Raymond and Co-Director Johanna Gilligan. Enjoy!

Times-Picayune: We’re a top food story of 2012!

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The fire at Hubigs pies, The New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, a smattering of new restaurants and Grow Dat! Times-Picayune writer Judy Walker recently featured Grow Dat in her annual profile of the top New Orleans food stories of the year.

Highlighting the top trends for New Orleans food in 2012, Walker reports on the continuing increase of stellar food Grown in New Orleans:

‘Also in City Park, the Grow Dat Youth Farm, which grows young leaders as well as produce, started cultivating two of their four acres on Zachary Taylor Boulevard. Their innovative campus, made of shipping containers, is part of their partnership with the Tulane City Center at the Tulane School of Architecture.’

TimesPicBestof2012

On NPR: Youth Farm Nutures Leaders

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Real Talk: Muffin’s on the radio!

Eve Abrams, producer of 89.9 WWNO, spent last spring on our farm, following youth throughout our 5 month program. She put together a great audio piece that features one of our lovely second year Assistant Crew Leaders – Franchel Stevenson (known around here as Muffin).

WWNO

Hope you enjoy listening to Muffin’s insights. Will you consider supporting other Assistant Crew Leaders through our Growing the Green campaign?

 

Grow Dat inspires world leaders at The Fetzer Institute’s conference in Italy

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At the end of September, hundreds of world leaders gathered in Assisi, Italy for The Fetzer Institute’s 50th Anniversary convening. The Global Gathering aimed to address world problems through love and forgiveness in the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi. The conference took its inspiration from real life examples, and our Grow Dat team here in New Orleans is humbled to learn that we were a featured transformative project!

The conference showed the astonishingly popular SEEDocs film about our project, sustainable community design, and our Eco-Campus. 

Check out the recent media coverage about Grow Dat and the other projects featured at the convening below.

The Washington Post

The Huffington Post

Johanna is nominated for Business Woman Of The Year!

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Johanna Gilligan, Grow Dat Co-Director and Program Manager, is a finalist to become the City Business Woman of the Year!

Johanna is the sole proprietor of Clean Plate Projects, LLC, offering consultation on food education projects and food policy initiatives. Grow Dat was launched through the partnership of Clean Plate Projects and The Tulane City Center. Check out her (fabulous) competition of forty-nine other women doing great work in New Orleans here.

The winner will be announced live at the City Business luncheon on November 16 – stay posted for the results and keep rooting for Johanna!

SEEDocs film about Grow Dat

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Check out this mini-documentary film by SEED (Social Environmental Economic Design) and Design Corps which highlights the sustainable design and build happening right now on our site in City Park. The film had over 100,000 views within the first few weeks of its debut.

We were flattered that Vanessa Quirk of Architecture Daily recently ran a story about our farm and the power of public interest design.

We’re obviously huge fans of Tulane City Center (TCC) and the fantastic work they are doing to bring our farm campus to life. TCC recently won the SEED Award for Excellence in Public Interest Design. Congrats, TCC and thank you for your partnership!

We’re finalists for Echoing Green’s Black Male Achievement Fellowship!

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Johanna Gilligan, Grow Dat Co-Director, has been named one of 16 finalists for the new Black Male Achievement Fellowship, sponsored by Echoing Green and Open Society Foundations.

Johanna is honored to stand with these truly innovative finalists, all social entrepreneurs dedicated to improving the life outcomes of black men and boys in the United States. The selection process began at over 1,000 applicants several months ago, and now the finalists will convene in New York for interviews and final decisions in mid May.

Congrats to all the finalists! Good luck, Johanna!

Channel 4 profiles Grow Dat Crew Members

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WWL Channel 4 News recently profiled Grow Dat, naming the youth Crew Members Quiet Heroes of New Orleans.

Youth Crew Members Josh Kemp of De La Salle, Amber Young of New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School, and Brittany Gaines of Warren Easton all shared their stories with Sally-Ann Roberts last week as she toured the farm.

Click the video still below to watch the clip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Greater New Orleans Foundation Awards Grow Dat $35,000 – the Highest IMPACT Grant Allocation!!!

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Grow Dat is honored to be selected as one of the ‘best nonprofit organizations in the region’, receiving the highest award of the new IMPACT Grants from the Greater New Orleans Foundation!

From the 12.21.11 GNOF press release about the awards:

“The IMPACT Program is the Foundation’s largest discretionary grants program. In partnership with its generous donors, the Foundation invests in highly effective nonprofit organizations in the following four categories: arts and culture; education; health and human services; and youth development.

“IMPACT 2011 allows us to identify and invest in the best nonprofit organizations in the region,” said Dr. Albert Ruesga, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. “These nonprofit leaders are working tirelessly to make this a thriving community for all. Their contributions add tremendously to the health and vibrancy of our region.”

The IMPACT 2011 review process was rigorous. “The Foundation received over 250 letters of interest from nonprofit organizations applying for grants,” said Ellen Lee, senior vice president of programs for the Greater New Orleans Foundation. The application review process included a site visit by Foundation staff, a careful study of all the financial information for the organization, and a review by the Foundation’s grants committee. “These are tough economic times for many of our area’s nonprofits. In addition to financial support, IMPACT grantees are supported throughout the year with networking opportunities, communications assistance, and investments of time by the Foundation staff.’”

See the Times-Picayune coverage of the awards:

We’re the featured campaign on Start Some Good!

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Crowdsourcing Social Entrepreneurship: ’Igniting ideas, Investment and Impact’

Grow Dat is excited to partner with the crowdsourcing platform Start Some Good for our first annual ‘Growing the Green’ Giving Campaign. Start Some Good helps launch social entrepreneurship projects that are committed to crafting  innovative solutions to ‘do good’ in the world.

Check out our featured profile on Start Some Good!