The Fish Foundation news and events

Hello all,
We arrived in New Orleans yesterday, and this was our first full day in the field. We're down here for two weeks, observing, listening, documenting, and spreading the word about the Foundation and project FISHNET. For those of you who need a reminder, FISHNET is a network we're building to connect donors to grassroots organizations working in educational advancement, financial literacy, psychological support and nutritional help. The goal is to help impoverished people (like folks in post-Katrina New Orleans!) by giving them access to the fundamental tools they can use to build self-sustaining communities.

This morning, we met with the Richard McCarthy and Darlene Wolnik, who run marketumbrella.org. These guys are working to bring better food to New Orleans through farmer's markets. Not only that, they're actively engaged in rebuilding the bonds of community with a lot of innovative methods. As Richard put it, they're basically recreating the model of the "town square."

Their markets not only accept cash and credit, but also food stamps. And everyone participates on an equal level -- all customers can convert their credit cards or food stamps into wooden tokens for market purchases. Market vendors come from far and wide to sell produce that people can actually use. Marketumbrella actively reaches out to poor communities to get them the food they can use, and they do outreach with rural farmers to create a community bond that stretches across the boundaries of young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban. Darlene described their market as one of the few "centers of happiness" in New Orleans after Katrina, where people came together to reconnect and begin the process of healing and rebuilding in a welcoming environment.

Tomorrow, Darlene is taking us on a "tour of devastation," encompassing the areas hardest-hit by Katrina. Stay tuned for more reports from the field!