Oasis Food Pantry

Oasis Food Pantry

by | Nov 6, 2021

Oasis Food Pantry

Project Description

The Oasis Pantry will serve as an alternative food resource for the Oasis Community. Constructed in an easily accessible location within the neighborhood, this unit will feature cool items, nonperishables, and fresh fruit and vegetables. The pantry will also include a Dropbox for area residents to give donations throughout the week. While we welcome all community members to partake and participate in this initiative, its centralized location will allow safe and easy accessibility to our community’s most vulnerable population, children under the age of 14.The food pantry would not only be a way to curb hunger but to show love & compassion. We at Oasis believe that we can help the problem by becoming the internal solution. Being proactive in this time is critical and needed. Showing love and hope is not only rewarding but appreciated by the ones receiving. It is our hope that this pantry will also be a cycle of hope in our community in that when families utilize the resources of the pantry and are able to get back on their feet, they can invest back into the pantry for other families in need.The oasis food pantry is not only a way for us to give back to the community, but for the community to give back to itself. Our hope is that this initiative will spark community engagement, pride and unification.

The idea for constructing this neighborhood pantry is not only for needy families in our community but for the homeless population existing in our community. We have a heavy presence of homeless people in our community and the pantry is to be the hand up they need, continuing the restoration in our community. We desire for our residents to see Oasis Pantry as a reservoir and source of hope, healing and restoration.

Project Details

Team Leader: Valerie Lewis / Josh Edmond
Funded Date: November 6, 2021
Amount: $2,500
Location: Lafayette, LA

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Greening Festival

Greening Festival

by | Dec 30, 2019

Greening Festival

Project Description

Team Greening Festival wants to reduce the amount of waste created at Festival International and be part of catalyzing a styrofoam-free Lafayette!  The ultimate goal of this project is to put Festival International on the road to becoming a “zero waste” event. The first step is replacing styrofoam serviceware items (i.e. plates, bowls, and clamshells) used by Festival vendors with compostable versions made out of bagasse, a byproduct of sugarcane mills.

We’re bringing out the FIL Geaux Green logo by putting Festival International (and eventually other local festivals) on the road to becoming a “zero waste” event!  Anyone who has spent any time at Festival International (isn’t that all of us?) knows that most of the food is served on styrofoam plates or containers. But did you know that styrofoam never goes away and that these food containers can neither be recycled nor recovered in any existing system? We bet you definitely didn’t know that there are compostable equivalents to all the styrofoam plates, bowls, and clamshells used today. In fact, one such plant-based item is made from sugar cane bagasse, a byproduct of sugarcane mills that we have an abundance of here in South Louisiana.

Depending on the product (plate, bowl, clamshell, etc), the cost difference between styrofoam and bagasse can range from nothing to fifty cents. We know this can be a significant ask of vendors, particularly those not used to this idea of “zero waste”. We will work with Festival International vendors to help them source materials, and, where it might be a barrier, use 24HCP funding to cover a portion of the difference in cost.

This effort will be paired with a fully-backed Festival International marketing effort promoting FIL’s move away from styrofoam. Vendors who elect to participate will be designated in the FIL app and at their vendor booths with the FIL Geaux Green logo.

Future Plan:

The beauty of plant based materials comes full circle if you are able to capture them once Festival-goers have finished eating. These materials, along with any food residue and leftovers, can be sent to compost at a right-sized and managed facility. When managed properly and mixed with other organic material, oxygen, and water; all of this plant-based waste will break back down into healthy, rich soil!  It is very important that no other materials get mixed in though, so we would start with collection in select areas only (i.e. Parc San Souci) and follow Louisiana Football’s model of hand sorting compost after each event to make sure that no other waste materials end up in the compost pile. This work would be completed by volunteers similar to the volunteers who handle recycling at Festival Acadien.

Project Details

Team Leader: Monica Rowand
Funded Date: November 9, 2019
Funding Amount: $3,000
Location: Lafayette, LA

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BARE Walls

BARE Walls

by | Aug 15, 2018

BARE Walls

Project Description

Team”BARE Walls” was funded $2,200 during the 24 Hour Citizen Project in 2018.  Through BARE Walls, we will “flip the script” on the common practice where businesses invite artists to hang work for free exposure. Often, artists may have work hanging in a business for months or years at a time without ever earning a dollar for this work. BARE Walls will allow artists to receive residual income for their work while also having their work be shared among more spaces, making direct relationships with businesses in the community.

BARE Walls would provide businesses with a turn-key service for having great art installed and rotated in their spaces every 3 months. Businesses will be able to choose from a handful of local, talented artists and will have multiple subscription plans to choose from, as well as the option to purchase. Some subscription levels would even include the addition of artist talks, art opening events or art classes where employees and customers could directly engage with the artist whose work is on display. We hope BARE Walls will provide a tangible and affordable way to support local artists while gaining a more beautiful and inspiring work-space.

Our funding request of $2200 would go towards the start-up costs of the program. This would include signing up the first 5 businesses at a reduced rate of $50/month to increase awareness of the program. One hundred percent of the $50/month paid by the first five businesses would be paid directly to artists. Here is a further breakdown:

Artwork Archive subscription $300

-this is an online gallery platform where we would upload images and profiles of all the artists on the BARE walls roster for easy perusal by businesses.

Logo design $100

-this would help with branding and identification of the program across the community.

Opportunity Machine installation, research and Opening Event $500

-We have arranged to hang a body of work at the Opportunity Machine at no cost to them as a way to showcase the program. We will be conducting surveys throughout the installation period from OM members to see how their workspace has changed with the addition of artwork. We will also host an official launch event in their space to educate the business community about BARE Walls and recruit new clients and artists.

Marketing $500

-this would be for six-months of marketing, both leading up to the launch and directly following the start of BARE Walls. This would include social media marketing, printing costs of brochures and proposals, photo and video documentation for promotion, and the printing of signature decals for business to place in their spaces designating them as a BARE Walls member.

Subsidizing 5 Reduced Rate memberships $800

-We have calculated installation costs at $160/year per business to rotate the artwork four times annually. We would provide the first five business partners a reduced rate of $50/month for a year. (normal Level 1 Subscription would be $100/month). The $800 would cover the internal installation costs without reducing the monthly residual income paid back to artists.

Project Details

Team Leader Dirk Guidry
Funded Date August 11, 2018
Location: Lafayette, LA
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Eyes Of The Sun

Eyes Of The Sun

by | Aug 14, 2018

Eyes Of The Sun

Project Description

Team”Eyes of The Sun” was funded $3,000 during the 24 Hour Citizen Project in 2018 to create two public murals.

 Eyes of the Sun mural project consists of installation of murals of the poem, “Eyes of the Sun”, written by incarcerated youth in the Lafayette Parish Detention Home.  Local visual artist Justin Robinson will lead in designing/installing the mural to celebrate the juvenile students proving that when we focusing on our education and being positive we can and will be successful. The Eyes of the Sun poem will be written out and signed “Written & Directed by LPDH Incarcerated Youth. The mural would serve as proof to youth in our community, that when you focus on your education and being positive you can and will be successful. Giving credit to the youth that authored the poem while incarcerated shows youth in your community that that if the students that wrote Eyes of the Sun can be successful, so can they. In 2015, I worked with youth incarcerated in the Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home to create spoken word poem, Eyes of the Sun. The poem is written and directed by youth in the facility. Our goal for the project was to prove that when we focus on our education and being positive, we can and will be successful. Majority of the students were from groups in Lafayette neighborhoods that often do not get along. Lafayette youth have faced a number of traumatic incidents including an increase in gun related violence, bullying, as well as the stressful climate caused by numerous school shootings. Our youth are in need of support, reassurance that they are not alone and exposure to healthy forms of self-expression.

The mural would expose Lafayette youth to creative expression authored by students incarcerated in the local juvenile home. It would serve as proof that Lafayette Incarcerated youth were able to unite despite their differences to work together and that the perception of Lafayette incarcerated youth should not always be one of hopelessness and lost causes, but one where everyone can have a chance if given an opportunity. The Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home student’s testimony through poetry would be shared with the Lafayette community and all others that visit.

Project Details

Team Leader Alex Johnson
Funded Date August 11, 2018
Location: Lafayette, LA

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Acadian Rain Gardens

Acadian Rain Gardens

by | Jul 29, 2017

Acadian Rain Garden

Project Description

Team”Acadian Rain Gardens” was funded $2,500 during the 24 Hour Citizen Project in 2017 to create rain gardens within Lafayette in locations that are frequently flooded.  The gardens will be planted with native Acadiana wetland plants, including vibrant wildflowers such as red Hibiscus, purple Pontedaria and blue Iris. These gardens would benefit the community in a myriad of ways: they would beautify our city, assist water in soaking into the soil, save money, increase the natural space in the city, and help educate citizens and visitors about the natural heritage of our region.

What if Lafayette could reduce maintenance costs of regularly flooded areas, better manage rain water and run-off, and improve the environmental quality of water flooding into our Vermilion River all while creating scenic spots that serve both aesthetic and educational purposes? We can, by creating Acadian Rain Gardens. We propose creating rain gardens within Lafayette in locations that are frequently flooded.  The gardens will be planted with native Acadiana wetland plants, including vibrant wildflowers such as red Hibiscus, purple Pontedaria and blue Iris. These gardens will be inviting to the public and outfitted with signage to educate passersby on the importance of wetland habitats, water management issues, and the substantial natural heritage of Acadiana.

These gardens would benefit the community in a myriad of ways: they would beautify our city by turning damp, degraded grass areas into flowering wetland communities full of life; they would assist water in soaking into the soil, thereby lessening the water that burdens ditches and coulees during rain events; they would save money by turning managed lawn into native plantings that don’t need to be mowed, sprayed, or watered; they would increase the natural space in the city using our own Acadiana plants, creating a more welcoming feel for visitors and citizens alike; and they would help educate citizens and visitors about the natural heritage of our region, and why wetlands are important habitats for the community.

Project Details

Team Leader Scott Jones
Funded Date July 29, 2017
Location: Lafayette, LA

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