Feeding New Orleans

Jeanne K. Firth holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was on the founding staff team of Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans, a food justice organization which is now the largest urban farm in the city.
For more information about Jeanne K. Firth, visit the Author Page.

“Instead of crafting a study of community-based efforts, ground that has been well cultivated, Firth instead “studies up” by critically investigating the role of celebrity chefs and their nonprofit foundations in shaping the foodscape, the city and our understanding of what philanthropy can do. . . . Firth concludes by arguing for analyses of the afterlives of aid, particularly of failed efforts, and conceptualizing under-resourced communities as due a rightful share rather than recipients of gifts. These seem like excellent places to start.”—Gender and Society

"Well written and engaging throughout, Feeding New Orleans illustrates that you can't divorce food from larger issues of food access, displacement, labor conditions, and inequality in creative communities. Using the rise of celebrity chef philanthropy in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans as a case study, she examines how such charitable acts become a major driver of development—and the issues of inequality and longevity that such trends raise."—Deborah Harris, Texas State University

"Feeding New Orleans analyzes the development of chef-driven philanthropy in the United States through Firth's extensive field research in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, including her own experience working for a food-justice nonprofit. This book provides a persuasive and original study of how race, gender, and American's consumer culture affect restaurants, food, and philanthropy. A timely and significant contribution."—David Beriss, University of New Orleans