Second Harvest grows food security with innovation

By Peter Finney Jr. 
Clarion Herald

One of the unmitigated joys of Natalie Jayroe’s job as president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana is witnessing how the challenge of fighting hunger in America seems to defy the partisan ping-pong that besets most other political issues.

When Jayroe makes her annual visits to the Louisiana Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to press her case for federal funds to reduce food insecurity in the 23 civil parishes of south Louisiana, conservative and liberal members are thrilled to see her and support her efforts.

Feeding vulnerable children, seniors and families resonates with politicians of all stripes, Jayroe said.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’m so glad I have my job and not some other person’s job – when they go up there and have doors shut in their face. Nobody does that to us. (Republican) Congressman (Clay) Higgins grabs our hands and prays with us.

“(Democrat Rep.) Troy Carter is a hero. I was in (Republican) Speaker (Mike) Johnson’s office and meeting with his chief of staff, and she said, ‘You know, the Speaker and I both experienced food insecurity when we were young, so this is a cause close to our hearts.”

Regardless of party affiliation, the state’s Congressional leaders understand both the spotless track record and efficiency of Second Harvest, an affiliated ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans that was begun by Archbishop Philip Hannan in 1982 under the auspices of the Social Apostolate to make the difference between malnutrition and an adequate diet for the poor of all faiths.

Francine response

When Hurricane Francine rolled into south Louisiana on Sept. 11, Second Harvest implemented its emergency plans to provide food, water and cleaning supplies in the areas most affected by the Category 1 storm. As of Sept. 20, the nonprofit agency had provided nearly 250,000 pounds of food and 13,000 meals to residents and first responders. It coordinated the distribution of a tractor trailer full of cleaning supplies from a Feeding America partner in Texas.

“We know that recovery takes a little longer, especially for our folks down on the bayou in St. Mary, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes,” Jayroe said. “Some of them were only recently getting their power back, so they lost everything in their refrigerators. Part of what we do is try to restock that. So, we’ll move from doing prepared meals and shelf-stable meals to more grocery-type items. We’ll be there as long as it takes. We’re still responding in some respects to Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, which happened in 2021, because people are still recovering from that.”

Under its normal operating guidelines, Second Harvest distributes food only to lower-income families, but in the aftermath of a natural disaster, those guidelines are waived, allowing it to get food to first responders and utility company personnel.

Sticker shock

Over the last year, Second Harvest has faced the challenge of increasing demand brought on by inflation, which has led to sticker shock at the grocery store. Although inflation rates are falling, Jayroe said, “That just means prices aren’t rising at the same rate anymore; it doesn’t mean they go back to where they were.”

“People are living with that 35% increase in food costs, and wages haven’t caught up,” Jayroe said. “Our latest numbers still show that 1 of every 6 Louisianians are food insecure. It used to be 1 in 7. And, it’s 1 out of 4 children – and 1 out of 3 here in the Greater New Orleans area. Imagine, 1 out of 3 children are not sure where their next meal is going to come from.”

Jayroe said she was pleased that Gov. Jeff Landry, after initially closing the door on $71 million in federal SNAP money (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to help feed children during the summer, ultimately decided to accept the funding.

“One reason we love SNAP is that it’s an economic engine,” Jayroe said. “Grocery stores benefit, and our grocery stores are struggling with the same challenges individuals are. They’re paying more for the food. Rural grocery stores are closing down.”

Mobile markets launched

“Food deserts” – geographic areas with limited grocery store access – prompted Second Harvest to make another innovative move recently by launching a mobile market program in which low-cost groceries are brought by truck into a neighborhood. It started with a request by Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee to bring food into the Avondale-Kennedy Heights area on the West Bank.

“They found some funding to help us with that, and we found some other funding so we could get a truck,” Jayroe said. “We purchase the food and sell it at a reduced cost.”

The mobile market program has spread to the Lafayette area. Jayroe said Second Harvest parks the truck in the parking lot of Ochsner/Lafayette University Hospital on the day when seniors on Medicare come in for their doctors’ visits. Much of the food comes from local farmers.

“They are already transporting these seniors from the outlying parishes, so they come in, see their doctor and shop at the mobile market,” Jayroe said. “The hospitals have done a census of their folks, and they’re realizing that food insecurity is a huge factor.”

Homegrown food

The mobile market also uses food that is homegrown.

“We pay the farmer the going price that the farmer would sell it for to any retailer because we’re trying to help the farmer,” Jayroe said. “But, because we take out the middleman, we then don’t have to upcharge. Actually, we’re fronting some of the costs ourselves by doing some fundraising so that we can discount things about 30% under what you would pay for it in a retail store.

“So, you’re getting okra from farms in Opelousas, which is a dream come true for us because we can help these farmers build markets and be much more sustainable. A lot of these farmers are people who have had the farms in their families for generations. They can’t live off of it, so they’ve got all these extra jobs and they farm when they’re not working at their other jobs because this is a tradition in the family. We’re trying to create markets for them.”

The savings are significant compared to what a shopper typically would pay in a grocery store: canned green beans, 60 cents (90 cents); Camellia red beans, $1.60 ($2.29); half-gallon of milk, $1.80 ($2.79); green bell peppers, 60 cents each (99 cents).

The mobile market program will take even greater strides when a truck specifically designed for the task – big enough for people to walk through and select their groceries – is up and running.

Infrastructure additions

Second Harvest continues to grow its infrastructure across south Louisiana.

In Lafayette, it bought the warehouse it had been leasing from United Way so that it can make modifications that “will actually make the facility work even better. We’ll put in a bigger kitchen there and run a nonprofit grocery store.”

In Lake Charles, Second Harvest bought a warehouse and also is partnering with Mayor Nic Hunter, who has disaster funds from Hurricane Laura to build a “resiliency hub.”

“We’re going to put in kitchens and some processing capacity for our farmers, and we’re going to have a little retail frontage right on I-10,” Jayroe said. “We’re going to test out the idea of making our own market and allow these farmers to sell product. We’ll have billboards up on I-10 that say, ‘Before you leave Louisiana, last chance!’ Or if you’re just arriving in Louisiana, ‘Come and get it!’ We’ll be marketing it.”

Second Harvest is also working with McNeese State University on a dietetics education course and a new program that would teach hunters how to safely process game meat. A farmers’ market is planned for north Lake Charles.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux recently gave Second Harvest a 20-year lease on a building that is being converted into a warehouse, which will greatly enhance the agency’s emergency response after hurricanes.

“We can do so much more than we could by sending trucks down from New Orleans that take an hour and a half to get down there,” Jayroe said. “We can make it into a warehouse that can handle food the way we need to handle it. Eventually, we’re going to put a kitchen down there, too.”

Council on Aging

After many years of bidding on contracts against for-profit agencies, Second Harvest now provides meals through the Council on Aging (Meals on Wheels) in five civil parishes: Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson Davis and Calcasieu.

“That’s an exciting new endeavor because we have the highest rate of senior food insecurity in the country,” Jayroe said. “We had made it a strategic priority for years to try to win that contract because if you’re a for-profit company, you have to make money, which means you have to keep costs as low as possible, which ultimately means that the quality of the food is marginal at best. We don’t have to make money and we have volunteers to help us, so we thought we could do a better job getting them good, nutritious meals.”

A woman whose husband was dying of cancer called Second Harvest in gratitude for head chef Matthew Taylor’s chicken pot pies.

“Chef Matt was able to pack up a box of his pot pies and deliver them to the house,” Jayroe said. “That’s the difference a nonprofit can make.”

Feeding America, the umbrella organization for Louisiana’s five food banks, also recently assumed operations for the state’s Food for Seniors program, which provides monthly boxes of commodities to seniors.

“We’re very excited about that because we think we can add some things to that box,” Jayroe said. “One day I’d love to have fresh produce to go with these beautiful boxes of federal commodities that are going to seniors.”

Second Harvest’s expanded services can become a juggling act, but Jayroe said the founding Catholic mission of serving others is her agency’s driving force.

“What I love is that we can be entrepreneurial,” she said. “Our staff used to say, ‘My gosh, another program?’ But now they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, we can do this! It’s another challenge, and we’re the ones to do it.’”

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