BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Roughly 40% of the country’s food supply goes to waste every year, according to the USDA. Now, a new initiative is working to repurpose it so no one in our community goes hungry.
Emily Chatelain realized Baton Rouge was facing a food insecurity and food waste issue. That’s why she’s teaming up with Chef Jonathan Breaux to solve both problems through the “Three O’clock Project.”
“We take food that would be going to the landfill or is in excess or is about to be thrown away and convert it and our chef makes it into healthy, fresh, nutritious food that goes directly out to those in need,” explained Chatelain.
With the skills he learned from being in the restaurant business for two decades, Breaux is now cooking up 200 meals a week in a rescue kitchen funded by the Joe Burrow Foundation for families who don’t typically have access to healthy foods. He’s using ingredients from local partners like the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and Hunters for the Hungry to put the meals together.
“North Baton Rouge, or just Baton Rouge in general, can be a food dessert so we are here to provide those people who might be in those areas with healthy sustainable meals,” said Breaux.
One of those areas is the Ascent Project on North Ardenwood. It’s a place Alexis Flowers said can be challenging for low-income families to prioritize balanced meals.
“A lot of working parents tend to want to warm up stuff or get quick foods like chicken nuggets and fries and all those easy and convenient meals but they’re not so healthy,” explained Flowers.
However, that’s changed since Breaux started delivering his repurposed meals to them.
“It was something that they questioned and just wanted to know how is this really going to benefit them but they got on the bandwagon and now everybody’s like, ‘do you have extra snacks?’ so they love it now,” said Flowers.
Chatelain believes this initiative is a win-win.
“No one wants to see food go to waste and no one wants hungry families or kids in our community,” admitted Chatelain. “This solves both of those problems.”
She said they are starting off small, but they have big goals to move into a bigger kitchen to produce 2,000 meals a day.Chatelain said they are looking for more people and businesses to get involved. Whether you’d like to help with food pick-ups and deliveries or you have a surplus of food items, you can reach out to the “Three O’clock Project” for more information.
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