Southeast louisiana suffers from food and economic insecurity

Nearly 1/3 of louisiana's veterans reside here, and lack access to fresh food and meaningful work opportunities. To provide more accessible fresh food for veterans and broader community, and create job/volunteer opportunities in food/farming businesses for veterans, community-based non-governmental organizations, with public and private partners, and our regional veterans affairs (VA) will host 6 outreach meetings, 29 2-hour classes and 12 6-hour weekend-day classes, over 3-years at various locations, including the VA, and provide: farming education, training, internships and mentoring to veterans. Variety in days/times/sites allows participation of veterans from assorted ethnic/religious/social backgrounds. Additionally, the project supports expansion of the VA growing program, using various agricultural practices, offering veterans immersive training in a familiar/comfortable setting. The southeast louisiana VA in new orleans has 66,000 registered users from 23 parishes (counties), and offers direct connections to veterans who come for treatment and recreation; some reside on-site. The primary goal is to increase the number of southeast louisiana veterans gaining knowledge/skills through comprehensive, hands-on/immersive farm programs, leading to successful careers in food/agricultural, to meet needs of veterans and broader community. Our target audience includes veterans, student-veterans, active military transitioning to veterans, women-veterans and those from socially/economically disadvantaged populations. All sessions will be video-recorded. Some may be virtual, COVID19 dependent, for those unable to attend in-person, and to use as a refresher, and ongoing future training. Participants will be offered internships at working farms and the VA, and matched with local mentor-farmers for long-term support on future endeavors.