Waste Hater: Alyssa Hernandez of No Hunger NOLA
Alyssa Hernandez is the founder of No Hunger NOLA, a New Orleans’ canning company that doubles as a team of policy advocates and community organizers that care deeply about food justice and sustainability. Originally this was intended to be a profile of a stellar small business doing meaningful work and the woman behind it all - and that it still is, but now it is also a call for you to support those businesses in your community that need your patronage now more than ever as we contend with the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We spoke to Alyssa to learn about the hard and noble work of rebuilding her life and her company; may it remind you to call your representatives to ask them to support relief for small businesses, and to vote with your dollar by ordering some takeout or donating to causes like Alyssa’s.
Before Alyssa was turning would-be food waste into exceptional preserves and pickles, she grew up in Florida between two vibrant food cultures, with one half of her family from Cuba and the other from the American South. She was also immersed in the food scene early on in her step-father’s deli. Alyssa began cooking professionally in several kitchens at the age of 18. Not long after, at 19, she became homeless - an event that would continually impact her life after being arrested for attempting to steal food.
She soon got sober and back on her feet, which involved immediately heading back to working in kitchens. She completed her undergraduate degree and became fascinated by economics. In particular she began to focus on agricultural distribution and food access on an international scale. Her interest was intensified by the fact that upon her return to kitchens, she had a newfound eye for all of the waste the restaurants generate, knowing that there were people out there struggling for a meal. This led her to her first exercise in building bridges for those lacking access to food by taking prepared foods from the kitchens she worked in to shelters.
Alyssa made the move to New Orleans after her acceptance into a Master’s program at Tulane University. There she focused her studies further on food access in the New Orleans area. Finally, in 2019, pickling and preserving came on the scene with the founding of No Hunger NOLA. In the beginning, she sourced most of the surplus produce from restaurants and produce distributors, with Grow Dat Youth Farm and Top Box Louisiana (an affordable grocery subscription) now emerging as her main partners. Though No Hunger is still a relatively small operation, they have managed to sell at two farmer’s markets each month and are stocked in four different small businesses around New Orleans.
On top of the delicious pickles and preserves, the No Hunger team is also heavily involved in policy and advocacy for food access. In fact, they’re rebranding their yummy canned products under the name Prosper Preserve Co. to better highlight a sustainability focus, allowing No Hunger NOLA to evolve as their nonprofit arm dedicated to food justice and education. Alyssa is a member of the New Orleans’ Food Policy Advisory Committee and its food waste and recovery working group, along with other leaders in the industry. As COVID-19 makes food access even more challenging for the vulnerable among us, she has launched an “On the Fly” Meal Kit relief program for service industry and other affected workers in New Orleans - using all surplus produce from restaurants. In ten day’s time following the shut down of many New Orleans restaurants, the effort recovered, prepared, and served almost 1,400 meals to people in need - an impressive and rapid pivot that is outlined on their website. After our conversation with Alyssa just a few weeks before the measures against the pandemic set in, it is not at all surprising to learn that her passion and tenacity led to a such a quick, meaningful, and successful reconfiguration of her business to become a hub to provide for others during this troubling moment in history.