Food Access Partners

In 2023, the New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) selected four food-based community organizations to serve as sub-recipients of funding received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These recipients will provide direct services to New Orleans communities that address food insecurity in the city. Learn more about them and their projects below! 

Second Harvest Food Bank 

Healthy Food Banking in Central City: Second Harvest is expanding its existing food banking and nutrition education programs. Second Harvest purchases and distributes a wide variety of healthy foods to food-insecure New Orleanians via its extensive partnerships with local food pantries and community organizations throughout the city. This funding will help them expand their operations and compensate for the decrease in food donations from retailers caused by supply chain issues and inflation.

 

 

 

Top Box Foods

Produce Rx & Delivery Program: Top Box Foods has established a "produce prescription" program for medically and economically vulnerable, food-insecure, and COVID-19 affected Orleans Parish patients. Participants will receive two deliveries of medically-tailored groceries per month for six months, enroll in SNAP and/or SNAP-Ed, receive information about continuous food access resources, and complete a post-program survey about their experience.

 

 

 

Market Umbrella

Market Match Retail Expansion: Market Umbrella, which operates the Crescent City Farmers Markets and several nutrition incentive & fresh food access programs, is expanding its Market Match program to include additional retail partners while prioritizing zip codes in areas of high need, and also prioritizing support of local agriculture. Market Match is a SNAP incentive program in which Market Umbrella doubles the value of SNAP benefits used at their markets and partner stores in order to increase the buying power of SNAP recipients.

 

 

 

Sankofa Community Development Corp.

Lower Ninth Ward Healthy Food Hub: Sankofa CDC will use its funding to launch the Lower Ninth Ward Healthy Food Hub (HFH), which will be located at the Fresh Stop Market (FSM) at 5029 St Claude Avenue. The HFH will provide 5,000 New Orleans residents impacted by Covid-19 with fresh produce on a weekly basis. The FSM will include a fresh produce retail store and a teaching kitchen, where FSM shoppers will also access cardiovascular and diabetes health screenings, nutrition classes, and hands-on cooking workshops to provide education on diet-related illnesses and improvement of health outcomes.