The walls of the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville reveal Louisiana's stories of slavery and freedom.

Inventions of Louisiana residents line the floors and drape the hall, presenting the intellect of a people once in bondage and treated as property.

Just beyond the museum window lays a different kind of presentation: one of survival and freedom. Seven rows of organic okra, yams, muscadines, amaranths, watermelon, and fields peas line the museum grounds as part of the Underground Railroad display. It exhibits the foods escaping slaves used for survival when passing through Louisiana on the Underground Railroad.

This garden displays how Africans and their slave descendants perfected the age-old survival skill of living off the produce of the land. Agricultural specialists from the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center helped establish this presentation and other gardens to teach that survival skill.

In light of Louisiana's hunger problems, agents from the Center and researchers Owusu Bandele, Milagro Berhane, and Yemane Ghebreiyessus are tilling a way toward a small solution: community gardens.

"This isn't the big answer," said Bandele, "but it is a start." Vacant lots are transformed into green, living spaces. Community morale increases. Relationships are built. Most importantly, families are fed. These garden projects are initiated by members of community-based organizations who want to unite the community, share produce for consumption, and-in some cases- generate income.

"Our main focus was to give the men better meals," said the Rev. Tom Webb, director of the Opelousas Lighthouse Mission, a homeless shelter for men.

Alongside 20 shelter residents, Southern University Ag Center agents tilled the land, established the soil, set up drip irrigation, and planted cantaloupes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and spices. The vegetables have become part of the standard meals provided for the men who also maintain the garden.

The simple act of planting a garden "creates positive environmental, economic, and social impacts" on a community, said Bandele. Webb agrees. He said he started to see a positive impact long before the garden was first harvested this summer.

Bringing the gardens into school environments expands the impact into an educational outreach. Ivy Johnson, a science teacher at Martin Luther King Academy in Baton Rouge, said the introduction of their garden has helped improve her students' math and science scores. The garden can also be a disciplinary tool. Before a student's behavior problem gets out-of-hand, Johnson will send the student for some 'productive timeout' weeding the garden.

Parents have mentioned their children having changed behavior and attitudes. The cafeteria uses the food and introduces meals like eggplant casserole and green beans in their school lunches and then the students bring any surplus to a nearby nursing home.


Community Relationships

For years, Ag Center agents have helped establish and maintain gardening projects for organizations looking to accomplish varied missions in Baton Rouge, Opelousas, Simmsport, Donaldsonville, and Lafayette. Th e Rev. Robert Joseph Sr., pastor of King's Children Full Gospel Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, said the church joined the neighborhood community association in trying to bridge the gap between the whites and blacks in the neighborhood.

Using a vacant plot of land, the small church created a community garden with success.

"This partnership with Southern was unique for us. We were receiving something far more sustainable than just a lesson on gardening or a small monetary donation," Joseph said. "What we received in expertise, actual labor, and friendship exceeds what we had expected of the university."

Many organizations are discovering, like Joseph, that more comes from community gardening and the Southern University Ag Center than what was initially expected.

"We don't just come in and put the garden together and leave the people alone," said Bandele.

He, Berhane and others from the Ag Center provide ongoing support and visits to the gardens as needed to help production. The team provides strategies for sustaining the garden environment, including use of natural fertilizers and pesticides. They also help with irrigation and weed problems.

The Ag Center's community gardening work was further encouraged when Ghebreiyessus secured funding from the United States Department of Agriculture to broaden the Center's means of establishing community gardens.

Once a garden's site is determined, Berhane and Bandele along with other agents work with the organization to prepare the land, test the soil, and select produce for planting.

The team has incorporated organic gardening methods and cost-effective irrigation systems to best establish the garden based on the desires of organizers. Once established, residents or volunteers share in the maintenance and rewards of the garden.

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