ROOTED: Cultivating Social Inclusiveness + Food Equity

From great tragedy comes greater opportunity. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, New Orleans found itself in the midst of an unprecedented civic disaster after being abandoned by the state and ignored by the federal government. Outrage and concern about the slow political response culminated in the creation of a citizen-driven food network. This local food network consists of community-based farms and organizations that devoted their resources and time to providing under-served residents with sustained access to fresh produce. These local farms and gardens primarily began to sprout up in the hardest hit and most restricted of neighborhoods. Often, these effected neighborhoods contained the highest percentage of vacant lots or abandoned homes within the city. Soon enough the network’s purpose rapidly outgrew its intent and it expanded into the distribution and sale of locally grown produce, leading it to become an economic driver and physical link across the city. What originally began as a small-scale response to political neglect quickly grew into a city-wide movement and eventual food revolution dedicated to reviving and rebuilding the livelihoods lost. By creating a series of food-centric public interventions of varying scales and functions a framework, or infrastructure, is developed to expose and celebrate the existing food network. These interventions look to promote economic inclusiveness and food equity so that this citizen-driven network can continue to thrive and contribute to an already culturally rich urban environment. To best understand the needs of the existing network it was dissected and examined as multiple layers and various scales. These determined the programmatic requirements for three sites that reflect the complexity and potential social implications of the network. This thesis looks to identify existing social and economic gaps, and craft new connections by preserving and enhancing existing food relationships related to production, consumption, and distribution