Founded in September 2005 to address immediate community needs following Hurricane Katrina, Common Ground Relief now serves New Orleans citizens and protects native landscapes. Executive Director Christina Lehew, who joined the organization two years ago, spoke with Avenue about Common Ground Relief’s current work.
Common Ground features two major programs. One is the weekly food distribution program called Free Pantry. Every Saturday, they distribute fresh whole produce, such as tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots, as well as dry goods including rice, beans, and cornbread mix. They also provide donated items such as bakery bread and storm preparation supplies. The local businesses that donate help make a huge difference.
Since its start in 2020, the Free Pantry has served on average, around 330 household members every week. A low-barrier pantry, they do not require any form of ID, registration, or private information from shoppers. As a self-select pantry, shoppers choose what they prefer to take or leave behind, which helps reduce waste. A welcoming space, it also encourages neighbors to gather and socialize every week.
For many New Orleans households, the Free Pantry provides a vital resource. During times of extended power outages, such as Hurricane Ida in 2021, the pantry remained open for two and a half weeks, accepting and distributing aid items on a daily basis.
During 2024 alone, the Free Pantry served 16,511 household members. In addition, 40 percent of Free Pantry recipients are children under 18. This is double the proportion of children under 18 in the Greater New Orleans area. Many local families with children need assistance for food access, particularly the fresh foods that the Free Pantry provides.
Common Ground Relief’s second major program focuses on coastal restoration and education. Every year they plant an average of 5,000 native trees, 30,000 plugs of marsh grasses, and 5,000 native irises, in addition to extras such as black mangroves and shrubs.
The majority of these plants are raised on a half-acre site established in 2009 in the Lower 9th Ward. It acts as a shady green space for the public, complete with a new water fountain. Every year the Common Ground Relief team hosts hundreds of volunteers, including local and out of state students, and educates them on the causes and consequences of coastal land loss in Louisiana. Solutions are covered as well.
“It is important to communicate that the solutions are out there, and they are often in our native landscapes,” said Lehew. “Understanding our environment and its past is key to understanding solutions for the future as well.” She enjoys connecting with people of all ages on this topic, which is interconnected to hurricane season, home ownership, and food access. Preserving – and even growing – the land is key.
The help of about 1,000 volunteers per year is critical to the planting process. “We take a lot of folks out into the swamps for the first time, and it can be a huge moment,” said Lehew. Because of the stigma surrounding swamps as dirty and dangerous spaces, some people are uneasy at first. But after spending a day outside, playing in the water and planting trees, the volunteers often gain appreciation for these beautiful spaces. As Lehew explained, at the end of the day volunteers can look at the hundreds of trees they helped plant and see a long-term investment in Louisiana’s future.
Connecting more visitors with Common Ground Relief is a big goal for the organization. To increase mobility accessibility, they are renovating the plant nursery to create ADA-compliant pathways for wheelchair access. In addition, they will purchase mobility tools to assist with bending and grasping. To improve communication access, they plan to translate all signage into English, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, and Braille. The team is also looking to invest in two-way translators, increasing their ability to share information with visitors.
Lastly, the Common Ground Relief team is working with several partners to better equip their space to serve as a disaster response hub, which is how the organization got started. For instance, they are acquiring solar battery systems to keep refrigerators running during power outages to produce and distribute ice.
Looking back on the organization’s twenty years of change and development, Lehew wants to honor Common Ground Relief’s history. “We have volunteers that have been with us every single year since 2006,” said Lehew. “It is a big year for everybody. I think there is going to be a lot of emotion and pride in what we have been able to do in this time.”
Get Involved
Get in touch with the Common Ground Relief team by reaching out on their website and follow the team on social media. Visit their nursery to purchase native plants for your home. In addition, the team welcomes all donations, as well as all volunteers of any skill level and age.
Contact
commongroundrelief.org, @commongroundrelief
