[StBernard] Chalmette Arc workers help harvest vegetables

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Jun 21 21:06:22 EDT 2012


Chalmette Arc workers help harvest vegetables

Published: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 7:00 AM

By Kate Mabry, The Times-Picayune

Since the center broke ground in July 2011, The Arc of Greater New Orleans'
Chalmette Community Center has offered a number of resources and activities
for adults with intellectual disabilities. Tucked away on Jean Lafitte
Parkway, the community center's Vintage Garden Farm, which is in full swing
in time for summer, also offers jobs for those who might have difficulty
finding employment elsewhere.

While the Arc of Greater New Orleans' serves more than 1,000 children and
adults in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes, the Chalmette center
works with 26 residents with intellectual disabilities from St. Bernard
Parish, the 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans, said Nicole Blair, director of
Arc Enterprises, though Blair said the center "has room for more" as well.

"We're just waiting to welcome them when they get here," she said.

To provide employment for people with intellectual disabilities, The Arc
offers six enterprises, including the Vintage Garden Farm. Tthe farm's staff
includes a full-time farmer, Jafar Lambert-Koeller, as well as workers who
are hired to help in harvesting.

In anticipation of the summer season, Lambert-Koeller said employees planted
a number of specialty peppers, including orchid peppers, Italian sweet
peppers and Trinidad peppers. Other summertime vegetables include tomatoes,
Thai eggplant, cucumbers, golden zucchini, green zucchini and okra.

Workers maintain the farm on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Lambert-Koeller said
residents can visit the farm on either day to buy produce. The center is at
3700 Jean Lafitte Parkway.

On Wednesdays, the vegetables are harvested, washed, packed and prepared to
be sold the next day at the Crescent City Farmers Market. Residents may also
buy the farm's produce on Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Mid-City farmers
market, in the parking lot of the American Can Company at Orleans Avenue and
Bayou St. John.

Lambert-Koeller said volunteers are often key in the farm's maintenance, and
members from Camp Restore, a volunteer camp in eastern New Orleans, have
also helped in the farm's growth.

Kathy Wendling, director of community service and development at Camp
Restore, said the camp hopes to support Arc's mission, but also "aims to
strengthen the community."

Through Camp Restore, thousands of volunteers from across the country have
traveled to the Big Easy to take part in programs like Arc's farming
project. During spring break, Lambert-Koeller said he received about 30
volunteers each day from Camp Restore. "A group of 10 to 15 is usually a
more manageable size, but we weren't going to turn down the extra help," he
said.

In addition to the Chalmette farm, the Uptown and Metairie Arc centers also
include farms with similar missions.

While the Uptown and Metairie centers are geared toward their community,
Blair said the property in Chalmette is essential in providing support and
care to those in the surrounding area. "We don't want them to travel too
far," she said. "We want to be where people live. They should be spending
time in their own community."

Polly Campbell, a St. Bernard resident and community activist with the
center, said she became involved with The Arc when her youngest child, who
is now 16, was diagnosed with Down syndrome. She said The Arc's work in St.
Bernard Parish was dramatically changed when Hurricane Katrina shook the
organization's former center and left its future uncertain in 2005.

"Once Katrina hit, none of the facilities in the parish were restored for a
great deal of time," Campbell said. "I worked with the executive director to
find a location to restore the center in St. Bernard."

As they hunted for a new location, Campbell said they became interested in
the former property of Prince of Peace, a Catholic church that closed
following the 2005 storm. Campbell said they met with a representative of
the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which owned the land, and the local pastoral
council to discuss leasing the building. Following negotiations, Campbell
said they signed a 20-year lease for the property, which included an old
rectory and a multi-purpose center.

Blair said since the lease was signed, The Arc's Chalmette Community Center
has greatly expanded from what had originally only been an office.

"There wasn't a day program," she said. "We wanted to go back to Chalmette
(after the storm) and extend our services to include day services. We're
serving several people in that area, and there are no other services in that
area, to my knowledge, that offer these services."

For more information about programs offered at The Arc's Chalmette Community
Center, call 504.301.4360.

C 2012 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.





More information about the StBernard mailing list