LOCAL

How a low-income Louisville neighborhood became a fresh food oasis

Courier Journal

In Louisville's Hazelwood neighborhood, where a third of the residents live in poverty, an urban farm has grown from the site of a former low-income housing complex.

It took two years for community members to remove truckloads of concrete from the 14 acres where the farm now resides. But come spring, the farm will produce crops that the nonprofit Food Literacy Project can use to teach youth leadership skills and engage with residents who want to reconnect with the land.

The farm has become central to a communitywide movement to improve food access within the Hazelwood and Iroquois neighborhoods, located in southern Jefferson County.

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As grocery stores close countywide, leaving thousands of people without adequate access to healthy food, the farm and several neighboring entities have formed something of their own food hub, with each partner playing its own role.

Jenny Kute and four-year-old son Henry put out fresh produce at the family's Save-A-Lot on Taylor Boulevard in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Louisville. Kute and husband Craig Oeswein had tailored the store to offer international foods for its customers as well as farm-to-store produce in the summer months. There is a farm behind the store's back lot that grows vegetables and the owners sell it at the store.

At a Save-A-Lot grocery store, owners Jenny Kute and Craig Oeswein sell produce grown by the Food Literacy Project's employees and volunteers. And they allow the nonprofit to set up a farmers market outside the store's doors in the growing months.

At Hazelwood Elementary, the Food Literacy Project teaches students how to cook healthy meals through its Field-to-Fork club. And at the Iroquois Family Health Center, pediatrician Julia Richerson screens families for signs of food insecurity, providing them with a small box of food if they seem to be in need.

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The goal of the agencies' combined effort is to promote healthy eating as a way to reduce diet-related illnesses and give choices back to residents who have lost them.

"We see this as a cohesive effort with programming in schools, programming in community centers, direct relationships with neighbors to food access and food production," said Angelique Perez, assistant executive director for the Food Literacy Project.

"We've always been of the belief that while this community faces real challenges, there's also a lot of assets here, and these people are uniquely positioned to lead a food security effort, a neighborhood change effort."

Rendering of a pavilion that the Food Literacy Project expects to open at its Iroquois Farm in spring 2019.

In October, the Food Literacy Project broke ground on a shipping container pavilion and outdoor kitchen where the nonprofit will be able to provide new programming. The pavilion should open this spring, Perez said.

Learn more about the project and the nonprofit at foodliteracyproject.org.

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Bailey Loosemore: 502-582-4646; bloosemore@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @bloosemore. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/baileyl.