Image courtesy of Mina Seck
Mina Seck has had her eyes on the dirt since she was a child, helping her grandfather in his garden in Pennsylvania. Today, after an impressive career spent in some of New Orleans' finest restaurants—Command hers, Angeline, and Carmo among them—she operates her own food popup Beets 'n Thyme, which combines her love of growing things with her love of cuisine by offering gardening workshops, menu planning, cooking classes, and more. Spurred by a desire to ensure that everyone has access to wholesome, locally-grown food, and to foster a self-sustaining community, she now serves as the Community Food Manager at SproutNOLA. The New Orleans nonprofit works to develop a sustainable and equitable community food system by supporting small-scale growers. For this special profile for our Gardening and Outdoors Issue, we asked Seck to tell us more about her journey and the work she does at this revolutionary organization.
How did your relationship with growing things begin?
When I was a child, my grandparents loved gardening. My Pop-Pop was always growing flowers and spent a lot of time in their backyard, and I would join him. My family, even though we were in a city, always prioritized fresh vegetables and visiting my aunt’s farm and friends in the countryside. When I was in college and had my own apartment I started growing herbs and houseplants in my window. Fast forward fifteen years later, and here we are!
What sparked your passion for promoting and educating people about food sovereignty?
Before I became the Community Food and Garden Manager at Sprout, I was a chef. Food has always been a very important part of my life and how I gather people and show my love and gratitude. Growing up, my mom and I would volunteer at soup kitchens, but there were also moments of my childhood where we needed food from the food banks ourselves. This always made me want to give to people in the form of food. I have always fed people and shared anything I can, so food sovereignty was something I did before I truly had an understanding of it.
Tell us about some of the most impactful experiences you've had in the realm of environmental justice.
The most impactful moments for me are when I'm having conversations with people, and I realize so many of us are trying our best to address the environmental crisis. Even when I don’t assume someone would be concerned, and they surprise me, it just gives me hope.
What brought you to SproutNOLA?
When I was running my catering business, my main mission and goal was to use local ingredients. I strengthened my relationships with farmers and growers by going to the Farmer’s Market and catering events on different farms. When the position opened up, one of my close friends, also a farmer, encouraged me to apply. I knew Emily (Mickey-Doyle, one of SproutNOLA's co-founders) and Margee (Green, SproutNOLA's Executive Director) through being a farm-focused chef so it’s been an amazing experience being a part of Sprout's community.
What are some of the specific issues in the food/growing landscape of New Orleans that SproutNOLA is working to address/change?
Some of our most significant work is in our land and reparations work. We’ve given out 500,000 dollars to Black and Indigenous land-led projects throughout Louisiana. This work addresses our nation’s racial injustices and barriers that prevent Black and Indigenous people from owning land. This program also supports farmer connections, facilitates lease support and one-on-one business advising, and much more. We also address the food apartheid in New Orleans by growing community food, maintaining and filling a community fridge, and offering free seeds and plant starts for people to grow at home among other programs.
What are some of the concrete services/programs conducted by SproutNOLA as part of its larger mission of developing a more sustainable and accessible food system?
We offer technical assistance consultations, a tool lending library, seeds and plants, classes, learning cohorts, fiscal sponsorship, and office hours to farmers and growers. We host weekly open garden hours, free community classes, and we also have the Truck Farm Table at Crescent City Farmers Market. This is a space where we sell growers' food and products for them without taking any percentage or fees. This way farmers can get their product out and save time for other duties. This breaks down barriers and makes selling at market a viable option for farmers while simultaneously diversifying the market itself.
Tell us why you feel SproutNOLA's mission and initiatives are important, particularly to the New Orleans community?
Our mission and programs are important to our community for many reasons. We believe that everyone should have support in growing food and access to fresh foods, regardless of what they’re able to do themselves. A lot of our work also addresses our current climate crisis. All New Orleanians are subject to what may happen due to climate change, and we hope to mitigate that through our policy and agriculture work.
What is your personal favorite part of this work?
There are so many parts of my work I love that it is hard for me to choose. There’s been moments of my job that I feel bad about it counting towards work, because I’m genuinely having a good time. If I had to choose, I'd say that I love the gardening and spending time with people during our open hours the most.
What are the best ways for people to get involved at and/or to support SproutNOLA?
The most important way to support would be by donating so we can continue growing our Land and Reparations program. We also host open garden hours every Monday from 2 pm–4 pm, Wednesdays from 10 am–noon, and Thursdays from 4 pm–5:30 pm—during which we offer gardening tips, fresh veggies, selections from our seed library, and free plant starts from our greenhouse. Our website's events calendar has all of our community classes, events, and open hours.
What is your advice for people who are interested in growing their own food?
Whether they are new to growing or have been doing it for some time, my best advice for people is to have fun getting to know your plants. Sometimes they don’t grow how we hoped, but if you take the time to understand and learn the plant, it will thank you for nurturing it.
Learn more about the work Seck does at SproutNOLA at sproutnolafarm.org, and at Beets 'N Thyme at beetsnthyme.com.
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