Liberty’s Kitchen moves, triples youth development capacity

By Charmaine Jackson
Contributing Writer

After six months of construction, Liberty’s Kitchen opened its doors to a new and improved facility. Its earthy exterior, which features a veranda and café-style al fresco dining,provides the look of a typical neighborhood eatery, but those who walk through the doors will discover more than cooking takes place inside of the 10,000 square foot space.

Liberty’s Kitchen’s executive director, David Emond, is excited about the new chapter in development. Located five blocks away, the new building’s open and airy look is a stark contrast to their old building. “The old building was a raised basement with low ceilings and was only 2,000 square feet.” The kitchen, dining room, and office space could all fit in our new kitchen,” Emond added.

The non-profit and social enterprise is a member of The Refresh Project, which revived the old Schwegmann building, and is an economic development committed to serving affordable, high-quality food in the Broad neighborhood, and also includes Whole Foods Market and Tulane University’s Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine. As a result, Emond believes partnership opportunities will enhance Liberty’s Kitchen’s programs and allow for more outreach to youth and the community.

Liberty Kitchen’s Youth Development Program provides youth ages 16 to 24, a supportive environment, hands-on food service training, classroom instruction, individual case management, job placement services and follow-up support. As a result of having more space to accommodate in both the kitchen and the classroom, Emond is optimistic the program will thrive. “We are eager to more than double the number of participants in our Youth Development Program within three years, ultimately reaching as many as 200 per year,” said Emond. The newly modeled space also includes a communal dining space in which participants eat at least two meals a day with members of the staff; reception area, conference room, office space for applicant processing and other administrative tasks; an expanded café with a private dining area, which will serve as a multi-purpose room.

Participants have access to a state-of-the-art Emeril Lagasse Foundation kitchen, which consists of commercial grade culinary equipment, designed for mass production. In addition to creating breakfast and lunch for café patrons, Liberty’s Kitchen supplies thousands of nutritious lunches daily, to local charter schools within the New Orleans College Prep system, through their School Nutrition Program. Before the relocation, the program had the capacity to prepare 4,000 meals; however, since the expansion, program participants can create10,000 meals a day. Emond believes since most children eat at school, they should be offered quality meals to be able to focus and achieve greater success.

Liberty’s Kitchen has already flexed its partnership with Whole Foods and has yielded six items including three salad dressings, a vegetarian-style red beans, jambalaya, and gumbo, which are all for sale inside of the popular grocer. It also has ties to coffee-giant, Starbucks and serves the full line of product. All of the revenue is used to benefit the organization’s programs and participants and the partnerships also provide employment opportunities for the students. In the future, Emond says he hopes to start healthy cooking classes at Goldring Center with the students.

Liberty’s Kitchen’s capacity to reach more and increase the number of professional-level jobs in the surrounding underserved neighborhoods, will influence positive change and give youth a healthy option. According to Emond, who quoted the wise saying:” Don’t judge the choices I’ve made until you understand the options I had.” Emond mentioned that “young people don’t grow up aspiring to become involved in crime. They make negative choices based on the difficult, even impossible situations that they so often face.”

“Liberty’s Kitchen helps young people get in a position where they have better options and can be empowered to make the life-affirming positive choice. We know that this will ultimately make our city a safe, more secure, and healthier place,” he added.

On Tuesday, August 26, Liberty Kitchen’s students and staff would like the community to join them celebrate their grand opening at 9:00 a.m. in the Refresh parking lot. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the newly revamped facility and taste samples, as well as see their motto in action: “Teach. Nourish. Empower.”

For more information on how to donate or support the organization and its mission-driven programs, visit www.libertys­kitchen.org.

Editor’s Note: Liberty’s Kitchen executive director David Emond’s name was incorrectly spelled “Edmond” in the print version of this article.

This article originally published in the August 18, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.