BATON ROUGE, LA — February 14, 2019 — On Saturday, February 16, Mayor Broome will kick off the Geaux Get Healthy program from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Charles R. Kelly Community Center.

Geaux Get Healthy is led by Mayor Broome’s Healthy City Initiative, Healthy BR. Healthy BR has brought together a coalition of local partners who are working to provide fresh food at an affordable price and offer educational programs to increase consumption of fresh food. Partners in the program include:

• Baton Roots is a local farm and community garden located at BREC’s Howell Park, where everyone from youth to seniors can learn how to grow food in their own backyard.
• TopBox will allow residents to order affordable boxes of fresh fruits, veggies, and meat that will be delivered to convenient locations throughout 70805. They will also work with two neighborhood stores in the 70805 ZIP code which will begin offering fresh fruits and vegetables in this spring.
• Grow Baton Rouge is a mobile grocery store that will deliver fresh food to residents.

Attendees to Saturday’s festivities will have an opportunity to meet the Geaux Get Healthy partners who are working together to promote a healthy lifestyle. There will be fun for the whole family including BREC on the Geaux, bounce houses, free food, fresh produce for sale, opportunities to enroll in the program, and much more.

“Through the Geaux Get Healthy program, we are able to work with communities to help address some of the challenges that exist in disinvested communities,” said Mayor Broome. “Through public/private partnerships, we are bringing access to fresh fruits and vegetables, education, and a community of support to keep our community connected to healthy choices.”

Geaux Get Healthy also includes a partnership with Assisi House and MetroMorphosis to lead monthly community conversations. These conversations will give residents an opportunity to provide feedback on Geaux Get Healthy as well as talk about how their community can be more healthy.

On Saturday, Assisi House and MetroMorphosis will lead its first community conversation with support from AARP Louisiana and Justin Lemoine of ELS Landscape Architecture Studio. These partners will lead a brainstorming session regarding possible uses for a plot of City Parish land beside the Charles R. Kelly Community Center. The Geaux Get Healthy program, supported by the Humana Foundation and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, has allocated $20,000 to develop this plot of land based on community input. Justin Lemoine of ELS Studio, with support from the Center for Planning Excellence and AARP Louisiana, will lead the development of the site. Phase One of the plan is expected to be complete within six months.

This project builds on a grant provided by AARP to develop lighting and walking paths at the adjacent BREC Longfellow Park. These walking paths connect the Charles R. Kelly Community Center with the BREC Park and the Delmont Library. The goal of the project is to provide connectivity between the assets and develop a thriving, walkable neighborhood in the 70805 community. To learn more, visit http://www.healthybr.com/geauxgethealthy.