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Learn MoreDaryl Chen explores a day in the life of Jonshell Johnson of Grow Dat, one of the many Red Nose Day heroes bringing health, joy, and learning to children!
As a little girl, Jonshell Johnson had a vision of herself “running through corn fields, surrounding myself with a whole bunch of tall plants.” It’s not exactly what you’d expect for a kid growing up in New Orleans, where — as in most US cities — concrete and buildings covered most of the ground.
Today, though, she’s living that vision — although the mighty plants are okra, not corn — at Grow Dat Youth Farm, a seven-acre unfenced, pesticide-free agricultural and educational space in New Orleans’ City Park. As the education coordinator at Grow Dat, she oversees learning tours and field trips for visitors of all ages — including nearly 1,500 schoolkids a year. “Our biggest motivator in hosting these trips is exposure. We’re the only urban farm that caters to youth in the entire city of New Orleans, so there are a lot of kids who do not see farms or gardening spaces,” she says. “I love to help them really be able to connect what they eat at home to how it looks naturally and how it grows and the hard work that goes into it.”
Grow Dat, a Red Nose Day funded organization, took root in City Park in 2011 to address issues like food insecurity, limited access to fresh food, and a lack of jobs and leadership training for young people. A 2015 study revealed that 36.9% of New Orleans’ young people lived below the national poverty line. Additionally, 23% of New Orleans residents, including many youth, experience food insecurity, leading to hunger and limited access to fresh foods. Since its opening, 450,000 pounds of food have been harvested at Grow Dat farm, cultivated by the 620+ paid youth farmers who’ve been employed by Grow Dat. Every year, three-quarters of the produce is sold to the public through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program (SNAP recipients get a 50% discount), while the rest is distributed to the young farmers to take home to their families.
Jonshell is the mother of two boys, ages two and six, and they enjoy running through Grow Dat’s wide, open spaces. She knows her children will grow up feeling welcome there and eating the fresh food she brings home from the farm, an experience she wants to bring to more people in the city she loves.
Jonshell says, “I'm motivated to be a part of a future where we do have more satsuma trees growing, so that people can just go outside and pick an orange. I want to see a future where there's more mint, more rosemary growing everywhere, more elderberries, more beautyberries. So that there's just more food everywhere.”
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