LAFAYETTE, LA. (The Daily Advertiser) – McComb-Veazey neighborhood where Zydeco King Clifton Chenier grew up has been awarded a two-year $200,000 grant to create a Creole Food, Arts and Culture District.

The neighborhood is one of 23 groups across the U.S. awarded grants as part of The Kresge Foundation’s Fresh, Local and Equitable (FreshLo) initiative, which supports neighborhood projects that leverage healthy food and creative placemaking for equitable economic development.

“McComb-Veazey is located in a food dessert,” said Tina Shelvin Bingham, chairperson of the neighborhood organization. “We don’t have any grocery stores within a safe walking distance. We just lack access to healthy food so we’re trying to get our own food economy going.”

The neighborhood, she said, previously received a $75,000 planning grant to explore ideas for creating a Creole arts and cultural district, using blighted property as urban farms, starting businesses by growing food, and start collecting stories from the elderly to preserve their unique history and heritage.

“It started with our community garden. We got funding for that,” Bingham said. “Then it turned into how can we use the garden as a platform to feed even more people in the community.”

The neighborhood group created a Home Growers Community Farm in the summer, testing what grows well in the space. They’re taking a break during the fall and will restart the farm in the spring.

Over the next two years, the group plans to continue engaging the community through events like Movies at the Farm along with workshops that focus on farming/gardening, nutrition and entrepreneurship.