The Krewe of Red Beans is joining forces with New Orleans-based Rouses Markets, Market Umbrella, the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic & Assistance Foundation and Preservation Hall Foundation to launch Feed the Second Line. 
On March 17, the Krewe of Red Beans, a Lundi Gras walking parade, began raising money to buy food from locally owned-New Orleans restaurants. The very first donation was $60, contributed by the Krewe of Red Beans, which paid for an order from Tropicalia Kitchen, which was delivered to University Medical Center’s ER. A month later, the Krewe of Red Beans was operating the largest effort to feed healthcare workers in the United States. As of April 19th, the Feed the Front Line NOLA had raised nearly $1 million and sent more than 55,000 meals to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers engaged directly with COVID-19 patients, spending $543,007 so far. Forty-nine restaurants and coffee shops are currently being supported by the initiative.
Feed the Second Line, a sister effort, was announced on Friday, April 24, which would have been the second day of New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival. Feed the Second Line seeks to provide food-love and employment to the city’s culture-bearers—musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid and Pleasure Club members, artists and other cultural figures in the New Orleans community. The initiative will pair older, more vulnerable musicians and artists with their younger counterparts to assist them with shopping for their groceries and household needs. The benefits of this program will be two-fold—providing much needed groceries for free to the venerated culture-bearers of the city, with contactless delivery to protect them from public exposure during the pandemic, while providing employment to the younger generation losing weeks, possibly months, of paying gigs.
The team at Rouses Markets is working with Feed the Second Line to create a shopping list that includes more than 300 grocery items, with a focus on local brands, plus essential household supplies and personal items. Market Umbrella will provide healthy, fresh products directly from local food producers including farmers, fishers, ranchers and more. The New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic & Foundation will help with identifying those individuals in need to participate in both aspects of the program.
Feed the Second Line’s first community partnerships are with Black Men of Labor, a Social Aid and Pleasure Club, the Treme Brass Band and Monogram Hunters Mardi Gras Indian Tribe Big Chief “Pie.”
The new initiative builds on Rouses Markets commitment to support vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19. In March, the grocer kicked off a first-in-the-country program to sell ready-made meals from local restaurants. Proceeds from the sales of these chef-prepared meals go directly to the restaurants.
Since opening the Saturday flagship Crescent City Farmers Market in 1995, Market Umbrella has worked to cultivate community markets that utilize local resources to bolster authentic local traditions. “We’re proud to continue those efforts through this partnership and ensure that these individuals who have dedicated their lives to enriching the cultural fabric of New Orleans have safe access to fresh, healthy food during this time,” said Kathryn Parker, executive director of Market Umbrella.
Donations to Feed the Second Line will support wages paid directly to the musicians and artists making these critical deliveries as well as provide these essential items to the older generation of New Orleans’ culture-bearers free of charge. Tax deductible contributions to Feed the Second Line can be made directly to Krewe of Red Beans, a 501(c)3 organization.
Anyone can donate by visiting feedthesecondlinenola.org or sending a check to:
The Krewe of Red Beans, 818 Gallier St., New Orleans, LA 70117.
