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NEW ORLEANS - Councilmember At-Large JP Morrell has issued the following statement about the potential displacement of Grow Dat Youth Program:
“I am completely against the plan from City Park Conservancy that would displace the popular Grow Dat Youth Program. Grow Dat is a community program that brings together youth from different backgrounds across the city for one mission - to nurture these future leaders through the meaningful work of growing food. It is beyond me why a non-profit such as the City Park Conservancy who claims to prioritize conservancy measures would plan to construct a road that would decimate this popular and sustainable youth program. Moreover, a conservancy should be aware it takes years to cultivate soil for farming, and that a relocation will destroy years of work and would reset all the effort made by this organization and the hundreds of kids who have worked there. This past year, I designated Grow Dat as a grant recipient from the inaugural City Council Recreation & Culture Fund because they are not only teaching young adults skills that they will carry for a lifetime, but also providing a safe space for every child that enters the farm. The perfect example of this would be Belle Adelman-Cannon, a 17-year-old non-binary Ben Franklin student and member of the program who tragically lost their life after being hit by a bus. I awarded those funds in honor of Belle, and I refuse to allow them to be gifted in vain. I am calling on the City Park Conservancy to reconfigure their plans so that this critical community resource can continue its mission for generations of children to come.”
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