BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — Black farmers, non-profit organizations and elected officials came together today to address the need for food in the Baton Rouge community. In lower-income black neighborhoods the access to food of nutritional value is scarce. This food give-away by a collaboration of organizations centered around the goal of meeting a range of community need.
The event was organized by national non-profit Social Change and sponsored by the Black Leadership Aids Crisis Coalition in collaboration with community partners Southern University, Louisiana NAACP, Mayor Sharon Broome, and many others.
Not only was fresh produce made available, people were able to get vaccinated, get rapid HIV tests and given masks as Covid numbers resurge.
“The pandemic created a whole other set of pandemics, people are no longer terrified about catching covid they are now terrified about paying their bills, terrified about getting re-employed, terrified about maintaining their housing, so anything we could do to at least alleviate those immediate stresses and respond to immediate needs that we know our communities are feeling and the pain we know they’re feeling is a win,” says Todd Belcore, Executive Director of Social Change.
Belcore also says providing the community access to nutritional food is all part of a bigger picture helping to reverse the cycle that makes people of black and brown communities more predisposed to die from Covid.
Organizers hope this event will not just be about a one day food give-away but also drive the importance of ensuring that people always have the access to healthy food.
