Women chefs lead a farm dinner, a joyous Juneteenth feast uplifts Grow Dat in City Park

The cultivated land around Grow Dat Youth Farm will yield some 50,000 pounds of kale, squash, tomatoes and other vegetables in a year. They are also part of a program that produces a lot more than fresh food.

From this seven-acre stretch tucked away in City Park, Grow Dat is a program that uses farming and environmental stewardship as a vehicle for personal development for local youth.

The nonprofit has been pursuing this work for a dozen years now, and this spring it’s inviting the public to two unique culinary events, both to showcase its own work and to celebrate diverse areas of excellence within the local culinary community.

That starts with its Spring Dinner on May 23 with a farm tour, cocktail reception and an outdoor meal. It’s the revival of the farm dinner Grow Dat held before the pandemic, and this return has a special theme, led by a collection of women who have each made their name in the New Orleans food realm.

Then on June 18, Grow Dat will be the setting for Afro Freedom/Afro Feast, an outdoor dinner aligned with the Juneteenth holiday and led by Serigne Mbaye, chef of the modern African restaurant Dakar NOLA (and a finalist for this year’s James Beard award for Emerging Chef, a national honor). See more details on both below.

Visiting Grow Dat can be a revelation for first timers, and an oasis at the intersection of nature, community and empowerment for those familiar with its work.

Each year, the group convenes high school students from schools around the city for its youth development program. They learn to grow food from seed to harvest, and that food is sold through Grow Dat’s CSA and at farmers market stands staffed by the students and also distributed to low-income residents through the group’s Shared Harvest program.

Julie Gable, co-executive director of Grow Dat, said people often ask if the program is about teaching young people to be farmers.

“It’s more than teaching them about farming, we’re teaching them how to be leaders,” she said. “It’s about how things work in the real world when you have a job, how you keep that job, how you communicate with people who have different experiences from you, what it’s like to bring something back into your community.”

As they progress through the program, students take on leadership roles at the farm and through community outreach.

“They get to keep evolving through the program,” Gable said. “Youth who started out knowing nothing walking in are now leading programs here.”

The property occupies a piece of City Park within the Wisner Tract, which before Hurricane Katrina was a golf course. It’s now a spread of natural splendor, wildlife included, nestled in a curve in a lagoon lined by live oaks. The land itself is a teaching tool and a unifying setting.

“Our youth is so diverse, we have young people who have never put their hands in dirt, and others who have traveled around the world — you’re putting all these young people together in one space,” Gable said.

“They learn that we need to put our hands in the ground and grow something and then we’re taking that food and giving it to people in our communities and people in need.”

Spring Dinner, May 23, from 5:30 p.m.

This outdoor dinner on the farm begins with farm tours and a cocktail hour, with hors d’oeuvres prepared by chef Meg Bickford of Commander’s Palace and cocktails from Cure and Cathead Vodka (plus a specialty mocktail by Grow Dat). Bickford is the first woman to be executive chef at Commander’s Palace, a restaurant that has long been run by women. For dinner, each of the four courses is fielded by women in the local culinary scene: Sophina Uong of Mister Mao, Martha Wiggins of the nonprofit Café Reconcile, Melissa Araujo of Alma and Kaitlin Guerin of Lagniappe Baking.

Tickets are $200; or $1,000 for groups of six. Donations in lieu of a ticket ($25 or $50) are also accepted to support community participation in the event. Proceeds from the dinner benefit Grow Dat. Get tickets via growdatyouthfarm.org.

Afro Freedom/Afro Feast, June 18, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

For the past few years, chef Mbaye of Dakar NOLA has organized a community dinner around Juneteenth, the holiday marking the day when formerly enslaved people got word of their emancipation. Last year, he held the event in Mississippi. This year Afro Freedom/Afro Fest is back in New Orleans at Grow Dat.

Effie Richardson, Mbaye’s partner in Dakar NOLA, said keeping the event on a farm is an important part.

“The idea is of food coming from the land, that’s what our ancestors were doing,” she said. “So we’re going there to cook and celebrate, and we want to showcase Grow Dat because we support and embrace their work.”

The meal will explore African American culinary roots, prepared through a collaboration of many hands. That includes Mbaye and chef Charly Pierre of the Haitian restaurant Fritai in Treme, Prince Lobo of the Ethiopian restaurant Addis NOLA on Bayou Road, chef Ndeye “Queen” Ndir of Ndindy African Cuisine in Central City, Wiggins of Café Reconcile, Guerin of Lagniappe Baking, and chef and pitmaster Greg Rosary Sr.

Cocktails will be handled by Turning Tables, the New Orleans-based nonprofit working to increase equity for people of color in the bar and spirits business.

The day begins with cocktail hour at 3 p.m. and dinner at 4 p.m., to conclude at 7 p.m. Tickets are $165. Get them via exploretock.com.

Grow Dat Youth Farm

150 Zachary Taylor Drive

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