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2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶ October 10–11, 2026
2026 Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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Donate Join/
Renew
Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶ October 10–11, 2026
2026 Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Post-Katrina Community Gardens

ORAL HISTORY

Khai Nguyen

Sông Community Development Corp

Khai Nguyen was born in Vietnam and immigrated to New Orleans, with his family, at the age of 4. After Hurricane Katrina devastated his historically neglected New Orleans East area, several community activist groups sprang up pithing the Vietnamese community. In 2010, following the BP oil spill, he joined up with the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation. At MQVN Nguyen helped Vietnamese fisher people impacted by the oil spill into urban farmers. He built backyard greenhouses, installed aquaponic ponds, and sold their vegetables and herbs to city restaurants. Using the co-op model, VEGGI farmers today also sell produce at the Crescent City Farmers Market and through subscription boxes. More recently, VEGGI has spun off from it original parent organization and is now housed at Sông Community Development Corporation, which aims to further support the residents of New Orleans East through environmental justice programs, disaster preparedness workshops, a youth mental health program, history and cultural programming, and, affordable senior housing. 

Date of interview:
2025-07-15

Interviewer:
Rien Fertel

Photographer:
Kathleen Flynn

“

“New Orleans it is about community and you have to proactively be a part of that community otherwise you’re not gonna like it. There are a lot of things that we have to put up living in New Orleans like infrastructure, trash pick-up, things like that. But the community is what sets it apart and keeps it going.”

Other Project Interviews

Interview

jackie sumell

sumell and her team correspond with Solitary Gardeners incarcerated across the nation, who design their dream gardens. By cultivating conversations, Solitary Gardens asks us to imagine a landscape without prisons.

Interview

Jeanette Bell

The Garden on Mars project became teaching spaces, where Jeanette promoted the ethos of environmentally sustainable urban and container gardening. In her 80s, at the time of this interview, Jeanette still gardens everyday.

Interview

Leo Gorman

Located in City Park, Grow Dat hires 15 to 21-year olds, paying them an equitable wage, to farm the land, growing produce for the organization’s CSA boxes.

Interview

Marguerite Green

In 2019, her community-focused ethos led her to make a bid for state office, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, running a spirited campaign that ultimately fell short. More recently, Margee has brought SPROUT’s mission statewide, as the founder and director of the Louisiana Food Policy Council.

Interview

Marianne Cufone

Using an aquaponic model that combines fish and plant farming, cohabitating in constantly recycled water, Recirculating Farms aims to raise the awareness about this type a farming, a way to grow lots of food within a limited footprint.

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The Southern Foodways Alliance drives a more progressive future by leading conversations that challenge existing constructs, shape perspectives, and foster meaningful discussions. We reconsider the past with research, scrutiny, and documentation.

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