Amidst the pandemic, the affordable housing crisis has become an increasingly tough issue in New Orleans. It is not news that the city’s housing market does not have enough quality, affordable housing units for its residents. Historically, rent has increased while wages have remained stagnant. The recommended portion of income to be spent on rent is 30% or less but about a third of New Orleans renters spend 50% or more of their income on housing costs. The issue has only gotten worse as people lost out on work and business during the pandemic and fell behind on rent.

On June 10th, 2021, Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill into law that formally recognized Junetheenth as a state holiday in Louisiana. It passed unanimously in the House and Senate, which speaks volumes about the understanding of Juneteenth’s importance in history. However, the work does not end here. Much more should be done to take steps to dismantle the systemic racism in Louisiana as well as the rest of America. LifeCity would like to highlight two valuable organizations that work to do as such:

Reducing food waste and donating food is an important part of our community's well being. Emergency food assistance is of utmost importance in the state of Louisiana when one considers high unemployment rates and low-wage jobs that may make accessible food difficult. In fact, 1 in 5 households in Louisiana are at risk of hunger. We compiled two options for food donations and leftover food to help you give back to New Orleans!

Schmellys is making plans to scale our compost collection operations back up to pre-COVID levels. We will be on-boarding new clients in mid August. Interested businesses can fill out an inquiry form here.

Originally started in a backyard, Glass Half Full is the nation’s first grassroots glass recycling facility and has expanded to a location in Joliet St and then relocated to a large processing facility in New Orleans East. The recycling facility has experienced a large amount of success and support, and they even received a Love Your City Award in our 2021 ceremony under the resource management category.

In general, cities are equitable when all residents – regardless of their race, ethnicity, income, and neighborhood – can fully participate in the city’s economy, contribute to the city’s future, and connect to the city’s assets and resources. In New Orleans, equity means access, education, community development, inclusion, resources, funding, criminal justice, and much more.

Nowadays, most employee wellness programs consist of gym memberships, rec rooms, and catered meals. Such benefits are valuable, but within a wellness program should be room for mental health. Studies of a diverse group of occupations have found a number of job stressors associated with depression, yet there is a lack of intervention in the workplace to combat it.

COVID-19 has reshaped the way we do work. With vaccinations readily available to Louisiana residents, things are constantly changing. But all this talk about going “back to normal” should rather be about going to an “improved normal” - in other words, instead of reverting to the way we did things before, we should instead adopt the successful lessons and practices we learned from quarantining/staying at home to pursue more efficient ways of work.

Applying sustainable practices to a business may seem quite financially challenging and lessen convenience factors, but making some changes here and there can decrease both company spending and environmental damage. Economically feasible ways that local businesses can be more sustainable are:

The Green Project is soliciting applicants to serve on our Board of Directors. We are seeking candidates who bring experience, diversity, and leadership qualities to the organization that will strengthen our ability to move our mission forward and ensure continued growth.

Beloved Community is hiring an Associate Director to spearhead diverse, inclusive, and equitable content development and delivery of our key programmatic strands particularly Equity at Work. This role is ideal for candidates who are passionate about adult learning that helps leaders grow in their equity journey by spearheading diverse, inclusive, and equitable facilitation that results in tangible, systemic change.

In 2019, the annual food waste produced by the food service industry in Louisiana was 160,00 tons, most of which went straight into landfills. In 2018, the New Orleans metropolitan area was ranked second highest for senior food insecurity in all of the U.S. metropolitan areas. While there are a myriad of socio-economic factors that go into hunger and food access, redirecting food waste is a tangible practice local businesses can adopt to combat food waste and in turn aid the hungry population.