NEW ORLEANS — A number of changes could be coming to City Park, including a road that would run right through the heart of a seven-acre youth garden. People gathered at Dillard University tonight for a community meeting to learn more about the plan.
Dozens came out Thursday night to show their support for Grow Dat.
“We’re hearing of the plans that would put a road through our beloved farm,” one supporter said. “This farm serves so many uses to New Orleanians.”
The youth farm planted in City Park grows around 50,000 pounds of produce each year and now its fate is up in the air.
“That didn’t happen overnight,” Grow Dat Director Julie Gable said. “It took us of us cultivating the year, doing things to the soil, giving it proper nutrients.”
City Park Conservancy introduced a master plan for park improvements and additions, which includes extending a road through Grow Dat’s farmland.
“It’s a very community-based space,” one student involved in the program said. “I think it’s important to the future of the youth because this is going to impact us.
The conservancy group says the road would provide a safe way for people to travel through the park, but it doesn’t mean the end for City Park farming.
“This is a park for everybody,” City Park Conservancy CEO Clara said. “It does come with tough decisions, and we hate that. This is the first of probably a lot of tough decisions, and we hope to see urban farming continue in the park.”
Even the young gardeners say, starting over isn’t that easy.
“Picking up and packing up a farm that’s been there for twelve years, that’s impossible,” a Grow Dat student said. “You can’t do that.”
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