Our School at Blair Grocery

This Sunday I headed to Our School at Blair Grocery, an alternative school in the lower ninth ward that also sells organic produce grown right on the premises.  The first thing I noticed about O.S.B.G. was how much the experimental school and fledgling urban farming program that I had worked at in 2008 had grown and evolved.  The same plots of muddy land that I had helped shovel and hoe into rows four years ago now housed huge plants and vegetables growing in soil that looked far less devoid of nutrients, and even lush.  Though the school and market were closed upon arrival with no signs of activity within, the trip wasn't quite pointless, as the environment and the experience with the locals was indicative of much greater underlying issues within New Orleans and the lower ninth ward in particular, and the role that food plays between the two.  Our School at Blair Grocery is a perfect example of what it takes to overcome the years of neglect, and the aftermath of Katrina, in revitalizing and rejuvenating a community from the ground up.  Because of the shortage of true grocery stores in the lower ninth ward, O.S.B.G. provides a venue for fresh ingredients, and defies the status quo of deli sandwiches, hot links, and beer which seemed often to be the only places with foodstuffs in the lower ninth.  If food is an indicator of culture, then O.S.B.G. is an indicator in defying the pre-existing status quo for culture.  Upon arriving at the school, we immediately started attracting intense gazes of confusion/unwelcoming, which was never the case while I was at the school 4 years ago working on whatever it was that needed to be done.  That aspect of the trip particularly struck me because it showed just how significant a farmers market is in terms of societal and cultural cease fire.  This was where the major disparity between the projected image of the school and the complete picture ascertained from being there while it was closed first became apparent.  As much as O.S.B.G. is slowly making a change in the community and culture of the lower ninth ward, it takes longer for its surroundings and the community to catch up with the subliminal and physical change that abounds within the confines of the schools property.  Obviously thats no surprise to anyone, but the fact that the change is slow and even disapproved of is a sign of just how much this school symbolically seeks to undertake, that being a backwards american food culture that is the victim of its own globalization.